Vulkan &#174; 1.0.75 - A Specification

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED
VK_ERROR_LAYER_NOT_PRESENT
VK_ERROR_EXTENSION_NOT_PRESENT
VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER

The VkInstanceCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkInstanceCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType             sType;
    const void*                 pNext;
    VkInstanceCreateFlags       flags;
    const VkApplicationInfo*    pApplicationInfo;
    uint32_t                    enabledLayerCount;
    const char* const*          ppEnabledLayerNames;
    uint32_t                    enabledExtensionCount;
    const char* const*          ppEnabledExtensionNames;
} VkInstanceCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
pApplicationInfo is NULL or a pointer to an instance of VkApplicationInfo. If not NULL, this information helps implementations recognize behavior inherent to classes of applications. VkApplicationInfo is defined in detail below.
enabledLayerCount is the number of global layers to enable.
ppEnabledLayerNames is a pointer to an array of enabledLayerCount null-terminated UTF-8 strings containing the names of layers to enable for the created instance. See the Layers section for further details.
enabledExtensionCount is the number of global extensions to enable.
ppEnabledExtensionNames is a pointer to an array of enabledExtensionCount null-terminated UTF-8 strings containing the names of extensions to enable.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_INSTANCE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0
If pApplicationInfo is not NULL, pApplicationInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkApplicationInfo structure
If enabledLayerCount is not 0, ppEnabledLayerNames must be a valid pointer to an array of enabledLayerCount null-terminated UTF-8 strings
If enabledExtensionCount is not 0, ppEnabledExtensionNames must be a valid pointer to an array of enabledExtensionCount null-terminated UTF-8 strings

typedef VkFlags VkInstanceCreateFlags;

VkInstanceCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

The VkApplicationInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkApplicationInfo {
    VkStructureType    sType;
    const void*        pNext;
    const char*        pApplicationName;
    uint32_t           applicationVersion;
    const char*        pEngineName;
    uint32_t           engineVersion;
    uint32_t           apiVersion;
} VkApplicationInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
pApplicationName is NULL or is a pointer to a null-terminated UTF-8 string containing the name of the application.
applicationVersion is an unsigned integer variable containing the developer-supplied version number of the application.
pEngineName is NULL or is a pointer to a null-terminated UTF-8 string containing the name of the engine (if any) used to create the application.
engineVersion is an unsigned integer variable containing the developer-supplied version number of the engine used to create the application.
apiVersion is the version of the Vulkan API against which the application expects to run, encoded as described in the API Version Numbers and Semantics section. If apiVersion is 0 the implementation must ignore it, otherwise if the implementation does not support the requested apiVersion, or an effective substitute for apiVersion, it must return VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER. The patch version number specified in apiVersion is ignored when creating an instance object. Only the major and minor versions of the instance must match those requested in apiVersion.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_APPLICATION_INFO
pNext must be NULL
If pApplicationName is not NULL, pApplicationName must be a null-terminated UTF-8 string
If pEngineName is not NULL, pEngineName must be a null-terminated UTF-8 string

To destroy an instance, call:

void vkDestroyInstance(
    VkInstance                                  instance,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

instance is the handle of the instance to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

Valid Usage

All child objects created using instance must have been destroyed prior to destroying instance
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when instance was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when instance was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

If instance is not NULL, instance must be a valid VkInstance handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure

Host Synchronization

Host access to instance must be externally synchronized

4. Devices and Queues

Once Vulkan is initialized, devices and queues are the primary objects used to interact with a Vulkan implementation.

Vulkan separates the concept of physical and logical devices. A physical device usually represents a single complete implementation of Vulkan (excluding instance-level functionality) available to the host, of which there are a finite number. A logical device represents an instance of that implementation with its own state and resources independent of other logical devices.

Physical devices are represented by VkPhysicalDevice handles:

VK_DEFINE_HANDLE(VkPhysicalDevice)

4.1. Physical Devices

To retrieve a list of physical device objects representing the physical devices installed in the system, call:

VkResult vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices(
    VkInstance                                  instance,
    uint32_t*                                   pPhysicalDeviceCount,
    VkPhysicalDevice*                           pPhysicalDevices);

instance is a handle to a Vulkan instance previously created with vkCreateInstance.
pPhysicalDeviceCount is a pointer to an integer related to the number of physical devices available or queried, as described below.
pPhysicalDevices is either NULL or a pointer to an array of VkPhysicalDevice handles.

If pPhysicalDevices is NULL, then the number of physical devices available is returned in pPhysicalDeviceCount. Otherwise, pPhysicalDeviceCount must point to a variable set by the user to the number of elements in the pPhysicalDevices array, and on return the variable is overwritten with the number of handles actually written to pPhysicalDevices. If pPhysicalDeviceCount is less than the number of physical devices available, at most pPhysicalDeviceCount structures will be written. If pPhysicalDeviceCount is smaller than the number of physical devices available, VK_INCOMPLETE will be returned instead of VK_SUCCESS, to indicate that not all the available physical devices were returned.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

instance must be a valid VkInstance handle
pPhysicalDeviceCount must be a valid pointer to a uint32_t value
If the value referenced by pPhysicalDeviceCount is not 0, and pPhysicalDevices is not NULL, pPhysicalDevices must be a valid pointer to an array of pPhysicalDeviceCount VkPhysicalDevice handles

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS
VK_INCOMPLETE

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

To query general properties of physical devices once enumerated, call:

void vkGetPhysicalDeviceProperties(
    VkPhysicalDevice                            physicalDevice,
    VkPhysicalDeviceProperties*                 pProperties);

physicalDevice is the handle to the physical device whose properties will be queried.
pProperties points to an instance of the VkPhysicalDeviceProperties structure, that will be filled with returned information.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

physicalDevice must be a valid VkPhysicalDevice handle
pProperties must be a valid pointer to a VkPhysicalDeviceProperties structure

The VkPhysicalDeviceProperties structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkPhysicalDeviceProperties {
    uint32_t                            apiVersion;
    uint32_t                            driverVersion;
    uint32_t                            vendorID;
    uint32_t                            deviceID;
    VkPhysicalDeviceType                deviceType;
    char                                deviceName[VK_MAX_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_NAME_SIZE];
    uint8_t                             pipelineCacheUUID[VK_UUID_SIZE];
    VkPhysicalDeviceLimits              limits;
    VkPhysicalDeviceSparseProperties    sparseProperties;
} VkPhysicalDeviceProperties;

apiVersion is the version of Vulkan supported by the device, encoded as described in the API Version Numbers and Semantics section.
driverVersion is the vendor-specified version of the driver.
vendorID is a unique identifier for the vendor (see below) of the physical device.
deviceID is a unique identifier for the physical device among devices available from the vendor.
deviceType is a VkPhysicalDeviceType specifying the type of device.
deviceName is a null-terminated UTF-8 string containing the name of the device.
pipelineCacheUUID is an array of size VK_UUID_SIZE, containing 8-bit values that represent a universally unique identifier for the device.
limits is the VkPhysicalDeviceLimits structure which specifies device-specific limits of the physical device. See Limits for details.
sparseProperties is the VkPhysicalDeviceSparseProperties structure which specifies various sparse related properties of the physical device. See Sparse Properties for details.

The vendorID and deviceID fields are provided to allow applications to adapt to device characteristics that are not adequately exposed by other Vulkan queries.

Note

These may include performance profiles, hardware errata, or other characteristics.

The vendor identified by vendorID is the entity responsible for the most salient characteristics of the underlying implementation of the VkPhysicalDevice being queried.

Note

For example, in the case of a discrete GPU implementation, this should be the GPU chipset vendor. In the case of a hardware accelerator integrated into a system-on-chip (SoC), this should be the supplier of the silicon IP used to create the accelerator.

If the vendor has a PCI vendor ID, the low 16 bits of vendorID must contain that PCI vendor ID, and the remaining bits must be set to zero. Otherwise, the value returned must be a valid Khronos vendor ID, obtained as described in the Vulkan Documentation and Extensions document in the section “Registering a Vendor ID with Khronos”. Khronos vendor IDs are allocated starting at 0x10000, to distinguish them from the PCI vendor ID namespace.

The vendor is also responsible for the value returned in deviceID. If the implementation is driven primarily by a PCI device with a PCI device ID, the low 16 bits of deviceID must contain that PCI device ID, and the remaining bits must be set to zero. Otherwise, the choice of what values to return may be dictated by operating system or platform policies - but should uniquely identify both the device version and any major configuration options (for example, core count in the case of multicore devices).

Note

The same device ID should be used for all physical implementations of that device version and configuration. For example, all uses of a specific silicon IP GPU version and configuration should use the same device ID, even if those uses occur in different SoCs.

The physical device types which may be returned in VkPhysicalDeviceProperties::deviceType are:

typedef enum VkPhysicalDeviceType {
    VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_OTHER = 0,
    VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_INTEGRATED_GPU = 1,
    VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_DISCRETE_GPU = 2,
    VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_VIRTUAL_GPU = 3,
    VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU = 4,
} VkPhysicalDeviceType;

VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_OTHER - the device does not match any other available types.
VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_INTEGRATED_GPU - the device is typically one embedded in or tightly coupled with the host.
VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_DISCRETE_GPU - the device is typically a separate processor connected to the host via an interlink.
VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_VIRTUAL_GPU - the device is typically a virtual node in a virtualization environment.
VK_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU - the device is typically running on the same processors as the host.

The physical device type is advertised for informational purposes only, and does not directly affect the operation of the system. However, the device type may correlate with other advertised properties or capabilities of the system, such as how many memory heaps there are.

To query properties of queues available on a physical device, call:

void vkGetPhysicalDeviceQueueFamilyProperties(
    VkPhysicalDevice                            physicalDevice,
    uint32_t*                                   pQueueFamilyPropertyCount,
    VkQueueFamilyProperties*                    pQueueFamilyProperties);

physicalDevice is the handle to the physical device whose properties will be queried.
pQueueFamilyPropertyCount is a pointer to an integer related to the number of queue families available or queried, as described below.
pQueueFamilyProperties is either NULL or a pointer to an array of VkQueueFamilyProperties structures.

If pQueueFamilyProperties is NULL, then the number of queue families available is returned in pQueueFamilyPropertyCount. Otherwise, pQueueFamilyPropertyCount must point to a variable set by the user to the number of elements in the pQueueFamilyProperties array, and on return the variable is overwritten with the number of structures actually written to pQueueFamilyProperties. If pQueueFamilyPropertyCount is less than the number of queue families available, at most pQueueFamilyPropertyCount structures will be written.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

physicalDevice must be a valid VkPhysicalDevice handle
pQueueFamilyPropertyCount must be a valid pointer to a uint32_t value
If the value referenced by pQueueFamilyPropertyCount is not 0, and pQueueFamilyProperties is not NULL, pQueueFamilyProperties must be a valid pointer to an array of pQueueFamilyPropertyCount VkQueueFamilyProperties structures

The VkQueueFamilyProperties structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkQueueFamilyProperties {
    VkQueueFlags    queueFlags;
    uint32_t        queueCount;
    uint32_t        timestampValidBits;
    VkExtent3D      minImageTransferGranularity;
} VkQueueFamilyProperties;

queueFlags is a bitmask of VkQueueFlagBits indicating capabilities of the queues in this queue family.
queueCount is the unsigned integer count of queues in this queue family.
timestampValidBits is the unsigned integer count of meaningful bits in the timestamps written via vkCmdWriteTimestamp. The valid range for the count is 36..64 bits, or a value of 0, indicating no support for timestamps. Bits outside the valid range are guaranteed to be zeros.
minImageTransferGranularity is the minimum granularity supported for image transfer operations on the queues in this queue family.

The value returned in minImageTransferGranularity has a unit of compressed texel blocks for images having a block-compressed format, and a unit of texels otherwise.

Possible values of minImageTransferGranularity are:

(0,0,0) which indicates that only whole mip levels must be transferred using the image transfer operations on the corresponding queues. In this case, the following restrictions apply to all offset and extent parameters of image transfer operations:
- The x, y, and z members of a VkOffset3D parameter must always be zero.
- The width, height, and depth members of a VkExtent3D parameter must always match the width, height, and depth of the image subresource corresponding to the parameter, respectively.
(A_x, A_y, A_z) where A_x, A_y, and A_z are all integer powers of two. In this case the following restrictions apply to all image transfer operations:
- x, y, and z of a VkOffset3D parameter must be integer multiples of A_x, A_y, and A_z, respectively.
- width of a VkExtent3D parameter must be an integer multiple of A_x, or else x + width must equal the width of the image subresource corresponding to the parameter.
- height of a VkExtent3D parameter must be an integer multiple of A_y, or else y + height must equal the height of the image subresource corresponding to the parameter.
- depth of a VkExtent3D parameter must be an integer multiple of A_z, or else z + depth must equal the depth of the image subresource corresponding to the parameter.
- If the format of the image corresponding to the parameters is one of the block-compressed formats then for the purposes of the above calculations the granularity must be scaled up by the compressed texel block dimensions.

Queues supporting graphics and/or compute operations must report (1,1,1) in minImageTransferGranularity, meaning that there are no additional restrictions on the granularity of image transfer operations for these queues. Other queues supporting image transfer operations are only required to support whole mip level transfers, thus minImageTransferGranularity for queues belonging to such queue families may be (0,0,0).

The Device Memory section describes memory properties queried from the physical device.

For physical device feature queries see the Features chapter.

Bits which may be set in VkQueueFamilyProperties::queueFlags indicating capabilities of queues in a queue family are:

typedef enum VkQueueFlagBits {
    VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT = 0x00000001,
    VK_QUEUE_COMPUTE_BIT = 0x00000002,
    VK_QUEUE_TRANSFER_BIT = 0x00000004,
    VK_QUEUE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT = 0x00000008,
} VkQueueFlagBits;

VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT specifies that queues in this queue family support graphics operations.
VK_QUEUE_COMPUTE_BIT specifies that queues in this queue family support compute operations.
VK_QUEUE_TRANSFER_BIT specifies that queues in this queue family support transfer operations.
VK_QUEUE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT specifies that queues in this queue family support sparse memory management operations (see Sparse Resources). If any of the sparse resource features are enabled, then at least one queue family must support this bit.

If an implementation exposes any queue family that supports graphics operations, at least one queue family of at least one physical device exposed by the implementation must support both graphics and compute operations.

Note

All commands that are allowed on a queue that supports transfer operations are also allowed on a queue that supports either graphics or compute operations. Thus, if the capabilities of a queue family include VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT or VK_QUEUE_COMPUTE_BIT, then reporting the VK_QUEUE_TRANSFER_BIT capability separately for that queue family is optional.

For further details see Queues.

typedef VkFlags VkQueueFlags;

VkQueueFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkQueueFlagBits.

4.2. Devices

Device objects represent logical connections to physical devices. Each device exposes a number of queue families each having one or more queues. All queues in a queue family support the same operations.

As described in Physical Devices, a Vulkan application will first query for all physical devices in a system. Each physical device can then be queried for its capabilities, including its queue and queue family properties. Once an acceptable physical device is identified, an application will create a corresponding logical device. An application must create a separate logical device for each physical device it will use. The created logical device is then the primary interface to the physical device.

How to enumerate the physical devices in a system and query those physical devices for their queue family properties is described in the Physical Device Enumeration section above.

4.2.1. Device Creation

Logical devices are represented by VkDevice handles:

VK_DEFINE_HANDLE(VkDevice)

A logical device is created as a connection to a physical device. To create a logical device, call:

VkResult vkCreateDevice(
    VkPhysicalDevice                            physicalDevice,
    const VkDeviceCreateInfo*                   pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkDevice*                                   pDevice);

physicalDevice must be one of the device handles returned from a call to vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices (see Physical Device Enumeration).
pCreateInfo is a pointer to a VkDeviceCreateInfo structure containing information about how to create the device.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pDevice points to a handle in which the created VkDevice is returned.

vkCreateDevice verifies that extensions and features requested in the ppEnabledExtensionNames and pEnabledFeatures members of pCreateInfo, respectively, are supported by the implementation. If any requested extension is not supported, vkCreateDevice must return VK_ERROR_EXTENSION_NOT_PRESENT. If any requested feature is not supported, vkCreateDevice must return VK_ERROR_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT. Support for extensions can be checked before creating a device by querying vkEnumerateDeviceExtensionProperties. Support for features can similarly be checked by querying vkGetPhysicalDeviceFeatures.

After verifying and enabling the extensions the VkDevice object is created and returned to the application. If a requested extension is only supported by a layer, both the layer and the extension need to be specified at vkCreateInstance time for the creation to succeed.

Multiple logical devices can be created from the same physical device. Logical device creation may fail due to lack of device-specific resources (in addition to the other errors). If that occurs, vkCreateDevice will return VK_ERROR_TOO_MANY_OBJECTS.

Valid Usage

All required extensions for each extension in the VkDeviceCreateInfo::ppEnabledExtensionNames list must also be present in that list.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

physicalDevice must be a valid VkPhysicalDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkDeviceCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pDevice must be a valid pointer to a VkDevice handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED
VK_ERROR_EXTENSION_NOT_PRESENT
VK_ERROR_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT
VK_ERROR_TOO_MANY_OBJECTS
VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST

The VkDeviceCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkDeviceCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType                    sType;
    const void*                        pNext;
    VkDeviceCreateFlags                flags;
    uint32_t                           queueCreateInfoCount;
    const VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo*     pQueueCreateInfos;
    uint32_t                           enabledLayerCount;
    const char* const*                 ppEnabledLayerNames;
    uint32_t                           enabledExtensionCount;
    const char* const*                 ppEnabledExtensionNames;
    const VkPhysicalDeviceFeatures*    pEnabledFeatures;
} VkDeviceCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
queueCreateInfoCount is the unsigned integer size of the pQueueCreateInfos array. Refer to the Queue Creation section below for further details.
pQueueCreateInfos is a pointer to an array of VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo structures describing the queues that are requested to be created along with the logical device. Refer to the Queue Creation section below for further details.
enabledLayerCount is deprecated and ignored.
ppEnabledLayerNames is deprecated and ignored. See Device Layer Deprecation.
enabledExtensionCount is the number of device extensions to enable.
ppEnabledExtensionNames is a pointer to an array of enabledExtensionCount null-terminated UTF-8 strings containing the names of extensions to enable for the created device. See the Extensions section for further details.
pEnabledFeatures is NULL or a pointer to a VkPhysicalDeviceFeatures structure that contains boolean indicators of all the features to be enabled. Refer to the Features section for further details.

Valid Usage

The queueFamilyIndex member of each element of pQueueCreateInfos must be unique within pQueueCreateInfos

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_DEVICE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0
pQueueCreateInfos must be a valid pointer to an array of queueCreateInfoCount valid VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo structures
If enabledLayerCount is not 0, ppEnabledLayerNames must be a valid pointer to an array of enabledLayerCount null-terminated UTF-8 strings
If enabledExtensionCount is not 0, ppEnabledExtensionNames must be a valid pointer to an array of enabledExtensionCount null-terminated UTF-8 strings
If pEnabledFeatures is not NULL, pEnabledFeatures must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPhysicalDeviceFeatures structure
queueCreateInfoCount must be greater than 0

typedef VkFlags VkDeviceCreateFlags;

VkDeviceCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

4.2.2. Device Use

The following is a high-level list of VkDevice uses along with references on where to find more information:

Creation of queues. See the Queues section below for further details.
Creation and tracking of various synchronization constructs. See Synchronization and Cache Control for further details.
Allocating, freeing, and managing memory. See Memory Allocation and Resource Creation for further details.
Creation and destruction of command buffers and command buffer pools. See Command Buffers for further details.
Creation, destruction, and management of graphics state. See Pipelines and Resource Descriptors, among others, for further details.

4.2.3. Lost Device

A logical device may become lost for a number of implementation-specific reasons, indicating that pending and future command execution may fail and cause resources and backing memory to become undefined.

Note

Typical reasons for device loss will include things like execution timing out (to prevent denial of service), power management events, platform resource management, or implementation errors.

When this happens, certain commands will return VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST (see Error Codes for a list of such commands). After any such event, the logical device is considered lost. It is not possible to reset the logical device to a non-lost state, however the lost state is specific to a logical device (VkDevice), and the corresponding physical device (VkPhysicalDevice) may be otherwise unaffected.

In some cases, the physical device may also be lost, and attempting to create a new logical device will fail, returning VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST. This is usually indicative of a problem with the underlying implementation, or its connection to the host. If the physical device has not been lost, and a new logical device is successfully created from that physical device, it must be in the non-lost state.

Note

Whilst logical device loss may be recoverable, in the case of physical device loss, it is unlikely that an application will be able to recover unless additional, unaffected physical devices exist on the system. The error is largely informational and intended only to inform the user that a platform issue has occurred, and should be investigated further. For example, underlying hardware may have developed a fault or become physically disconnected from the rest of the system. In many cases, physical device loss may cause other more serious issues such as the operating system crashing; in which case it may not be reported via the Vulkan API.

Note

Undefined behavior caused by an application error may cause a device to become lost. However, such undefined behavior may also cause unrecoverable damage to the process, and it is then not guaranteed that the API objects, including the VkPhysicalDevice or the VkInstance are still valid or that the error is recoverable.

When a device is lost, its child objects are not implicitly destroyed and their handles are still valid. Those objects must still be destroyed before their parents or the device can be destroyed (see the Object Lifetime section). The host address space corresponding to device memory mapped using vkMapMemory is still valid, and host memory accesses to these mapped regions are still valid, but the contents are undefined. It is still legal to call any API command on the device and child objects.

Once a device is lost, command execution may fail, and commands that return a VkResult may return VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST. Commands that do not allow run-time errors must still operate correctly for valid usage and, if applicable, return valid data.

Commands that wait indefinitely for device execution (namely vkDeviceWaitIdle, vkQueueWaitIdle, vkWaitForFences with a maximum timeout, and vkGetQueryPoolResults with the VK_QUERY_RESULT_WAIT_BIT bit set in flags) must return in finite time even in the case of a lost device, and return either VK_SUCCESS or VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST. For any command that may return VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST, for the purpose of determining whether a command buffer is in the pending state, or whether resources are considered in-use by the device, a return value of VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST is equivalent to VK_SUCCESS.

4.2.4. Device Destruction

To destroy a device, call:

void vkDestroyDevice(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

To ensure that no work is active on the device, vkDeviceWaitIdle can be used to gate the destruction of the device. Prior to destroying a device, an application is responsible for destroying/freeing any Vulkan objects that were created using that device as the first parameter of the corresponding vkCreate* or vkAllocate* command.

Note

The lifetime of each of these objects is bound by the lifetime of the VkDevice object. Therefore, to avoid resource leaks, it is critical that an application explicitly free all of these resources prior to calling vkDestroyDevice.

Valid Usage

All child objects created on device must have been destroyed prior to destroying device
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when device was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when device was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

If device is not NULL, device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure

Host Synchronization

Host access to device must be externally synchronized

4.3. Queues

4.3.1. Queue Family Properties

As discussed in the Physical Device Enumeration section above, the vkGetPhysicalDeviceQueueFamilyProperties command is used to retrieve details about the queue families and queues supported by a device.

Each index in the pQueueFamilyProperties array returned by vkGetPhysicalDeviceQueueFamilyProperties describes a unique queue family on that physical device. These indices are used when creating queues, and they correspond directly with the queueFamilyIndex that is passed to the vkCreateDevice command via the VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo structure as described in the Queue Creation section below.

Grouping of queue families within a physical device is implementation-dependent.

Note

The general expectation is that a physical device groups all queues of matching capabilities into a single family. However, while implementations should do this, it is possible that a physical device may return two separate queue families with the same capabilities.

Once an application has identified a physical device with the queue(s) that it desires to use, it will create those queues in conjunction with a logical device. This is described in the following section.

4.3.2. Queue Creation

Creating a logical device also creates the queues associated with that device. The queues to create are described by a set of VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo structures that are passed to vkCreateDevice in pQueueCreateInfos.

Queues are represented by VkQueue handles:

VK_DEFINE_HANDLE(VkQueue)

The VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType             sType;
    const void*                 pNext;
    VkDeviceQueueCreateFlags    flags;
    uint32_t                    queueFamilyIndex;
    uint32_t                    queueCount;
    const float*                pQueuePriorities;
} VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
queueFamilyIndex is an unsigned integer indicating the index of the queue family to create on this device. This index corresponds to the index of an element of the pQueueFamilyProperties array that was returned by vkGetPhysicalDeviceQueueFamilyProperties.
queueCount is an unsigned integer specifying the number of queues to create in the queue family indicated by queueFamilyIndex.
pQueuePriorities is an array of queueCount normalized floating point values, specifying priorities of work that will be submitted to each created queue. See Queue Priority for more information.

Valid Usage

queueFamilyIndex must be less than pQueueFamilyPropertyCount returned by vkGetPhysicalDeviceQueueFamilyProperties
queueCount must be less than or equal to the queueCount member of the VkQueueFamilyProperties structure, as returned by vkGetPhysicalDeviceQueueFamilyProperties in the pQueueFamilyProperties[queueFamilyIndex]
Each element of pQueuePriorities must be between 0.0 and 1.0 inclusive

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_DEVICE_QUEUE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be a valid combination of VkDeviceQueueCreateFlagBits values
pQueuePriorities must be a valid pointer to an array of queueCount float values
queueCount must be greater than 0

typedef VkFlags VkDeviceQueueCreateFlags;

VkDeviceQueueCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkDeviceQueueCreateFlagBits.

To retrieve a handle to a VkQueue object, call:

void vkGetDeviceQueue(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    uint32_t                                    queueFamilyIndex,
    uint32_t                                    queueIndex,
    VkQueue*                                    pQueue);

device is the logical device that owns the queue.
queueFamilyIndex is the index of the queue family to which the queue belongs.
queueIndex is the index within this queue family of the queue to retrieve.
pQueue is a pointer to a VkQueue object that will be filled with the handle for the requested queue.

Valid Usage

queueFamilyIndex must be one of the queue family indices specified when device was created, via the VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo structure
queueIndex must be less than the number of queues created for the specified queue family index when device was created, via the queueCount member of the VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo structure
VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo::flags must have been set to zero when device was created

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pQueue must be a valid pointer to a VkQueue handle

4.3.3. Queue Family Index

The queue family index is used in multiple places in Vulkan in order to tie operations to a specific family of queues.

When retrieving a handle to the queue via vkGetDeviceQueue, the queue family index is used to select which queue family to retrieve the VkQueue handle from as described in the previous section.

When creating a VkCommandPool object (see Command Pools), a queue family index is specified in the VkCommandPoolCreateInfo structure. Command buffers from this pool can only be submitted on queues corresponding to this queue family.

When creating VkImage (see Images) and VkBuffer (see Buffers) resources, a set of queue families is included in the VkImageCreateInfo and VkBufferCreateInfo structures to specify the queue families that can access the resource.

When inserting a VkBufferMemoryBarrier or VkImageMemoryBarrier (see Events) a source and destination queue family index is specified to allow the ownership of a buffer or image to be transferred from one queue family to another. See the Resource Sharing section for details.

4.3.4. Queue Priority

Each queue is assigned a priority, as set in the VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo structures when creating the device. The priority of each queue is a normalized floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0, which is then translated to a discrete priority level by the implementation. Higher values indicate a higher priority, with 0.0 being the lowest priority and 1.0 being the highest.

Within the same device, queues with higher priority may be allotted more processing time than queues with lower priority. The implementation makes no guarantees with regards to ordering or scheduling among queues with the same priority, other than the constraints defined by any explicit synchronization primitives. The implementation make no guarantees with regards to queues across different devices.

An implementation may allow a higher-priority queue to starve a lower-priority queue on the same VkDevice until the higher-priority queue has no further commands to execute. The relationship of queue priorities must not cause queues on one VkDevice to starve queues on another VkDevice.

No specific guarantees are made about higher priority queues receiving more processing time or better quality of service than lower priority queues.

4.3.5. Queue Submission

Work is submitted to a queue via queue submission commands such as vkQueueSubmit. Queue submission commands define a set of queue operations to be executed by the underlying physical device, including synchronization with semaphores and fences.

Submission commands take as parameters a target queue, zero or more batches of work, and an optional fence to signal upon completion. Each batch consists of three distinct parts:

Zero or more semaphores to wait on before execution of the rest of the batch.
- If present, these describe a semaphore wait operation.
Zero or more work items to execute.
- If present, these describe a queue operation matching the work described.
Zero or more semaphores to signal upon completion of the work items.
- If present, these describe a semaphore signal operation.

If a fence is present in a queue submission, it describes a fence signal operation.

All work described by a queue submission command must be submitted to the queue before the command returns.

Sparse Memory Binding

In Vulkan it is possible to sparsely bind memory to buffers and images as described in the Sparse Resource chapter. Sparse memory binding is a queue operation. A queue whose flags include the VK_QUEUE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT must be able to support the mapping of a virtual address to a physical address on the device. This causes an update to the page table mappings on the device. This update must be synchronized on a queue to avoid corrupting page table mappings during execution of graphics commands. By binding the sparse memory resources on queues, all commands that are dependent on the updated bindings are synchronized to only execute after the binding is updated. See the Synchronization and Cache Control chapter for how this synchronization is accomplished.

4.3.6. Queue Destruction

Queues are created along with a logical device during vkCreateDevice. All queues associated with a logical device are destroyed when vkDestroyDevice is called on that device.

5. Command Buffers

Command buffers are objects used to record commands which can be subsequently submitted to a device queue for execution. There are two levels of command buffers - primary command buffers, which can execute secondary command buffers, and which are submitted to queues, and secondary command buffers, which can be executed by primary command buffers, and which are not directly submitted to queues.

Command buffers are represented by VkCommandBuffer handles:

VK_DEFINE_HANDLE(VkCommandBuffer)

Recorded commands include commands to bind pipelines and descriptor sets to the command buffer, commands to modify dynamic state, commands to draw (for graphics rendering), commands to dispatch (for compute), commands to execute secondary command buffers (for primary command buffers only), commands to copy buffers and images, and other commands.

Each command buffer manages state independently of other command buffers. There is no inheritance of state across primary and secondary command buffers, or between secondary command buffers. When a command buffer begins recording, all state in that command buffer is undefined. When secondary command buffer(s) are recorded to execute on a primary command buffer, the secondary command buffer inherits no state from the primary command buffer, and all state of the primary command buffer is undefined after an execute secondary command buffer command is recorded. There is one exception to this rule - if the primary command buffer is inside a render pass instance, then the render pass and subpass state is not disturbed by executing secondary command buffers. Whenever the state of a command buffer is undefined, the application must set all relevant state on the command buffer before any state dependent commands such as draws and dispatches are recorded, otherwise the behavior of executing that command buffer is undefined.

Unless otherwise specified, and without explicit synchronization, the various commands submitted to a queue via command buffers may execute in arbitrary order relative to each other, and/or concurrently. Also, the memory side-effects of those commands may not be directly visible to other commands without explicit memory dependencies. This is true within a command buffer, and across command buffers submitted to a given queue. See the synchronization chapter for information on implicit and explicit synchronization between commands.

5.1. Command Buffer Lifecycle

Each command buffer is always in one of the following states:

Initial: When a command buffer is allocated, it is in the initial state. Some commands are able to reset a command buffer, or a set of command buffers, back to this state from any of the executable, recording or invalid state. Command buffers in the initial state can only be moved to the recording state, or freed.
Recording: vkBeginCommandBuffer changes the state of a command buffer from the initial state to the recording state. Once a command buffer is in the recording state, vkCmd* commands can be used to record to the command buffer.
Executable: vkEndCommandBuffer ends the recording of a command buffer, and moves it from the recording state to the executable state. Executable command buffers can be submitted, reset, or recorded to another command buffer.
Pending: Queue submission of a command buffer changes the state of a command buffer from the executable state to the pending state. Whilst in the pending state, applications must not attempt to modify the command buffer in any way - as the device may be processing the commands recorded to it. Once execution of a command buffer completes, the command buffer reverts back to either the executable state, or the invalid state if it was recorded with VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_ONE_TIME_SUBMIT_BIT. A synchronization command should be used to detect when this occurs.
Invalid: Some operations, such as modifying or deleting a resource that was used in a command recorded to a command buffer, will transition the state of that command buffer into the invalid state. Command buffers in the invalid state can only be reset or freed.

Figure 1. Lifecycle of a command buffer

Any given command that operates on a command buffer has its own requirements on what state a command buffer must be in, which are detailed in the valid usage constraints for that command.

Resetting a command buffer is an operation that discards any previously recorded commands and puts a command buffer in the initial state. Resetting occurs as a result of vkResetCommandBuffer or vkResetCommandPool, or as part of vkBeginCommandBuffer (which additionally puts the command buffer in the recording state).

Secondary command buffers can be recorded to a primary command buffer via vkCmdExecuteCommands. This partially ties the lifecycle of the two command buffers together - if the primary is submitted to a queue, both the primary and any secondaries recorded to it move to the pending state. Once execution of the primary completes, so does any secondary recorded within it, and once all executions of each command buffer complete, they move to the executable state. If a secondary moves to any other state whilst it is recorded to another command buffer, the primary moves to the invalid state. A primary moving to any other state does not affect the state of the secondary. Resetting or freeing a primary command buffer removes the linkage to any secondary command buffers that were recorded to it.

5.2. Command Pools

Command pools are opaque objects that command buffer memory is allocated from, and which allow the implementation to amortize the cost of resource creation across multiple command buffers. Command pools are externally synchronized, meaning that a command pool must not be used concurrently in multiple threads. That includes use via recording commands on any command buffers allocated from the pool, as well as operations that allocate, free, and reset command buffers or the pool itself.

Command pools are represented by VkCommandPool handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkCommandPool)

To create a command pool, call:

VkResult vkCreateCommandPool(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkCommandPoolCreateInfo*              pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkCommandPool*                              pCommandPool);

device is the logical device that creates the command pool.
pCreateInfo is a pointer to an instance of the VkCommandPoolCreateInfo structure specifying the state of the command pool object.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pCommandPool points to a VkCommandPool handle in which the created pool is returned.

Valid Usage

pCreateInfo::queueFamilyIndex must be the index of a queue family available in the logical device device.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkCommandPoolCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pCommandPool must be a valid pointer to a VkCommandPool handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkCommandPoolCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkCommandPoolCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType             sType;
    const void*                 pNext;
    VkCommandPoolCreateFlags    flags;
    uint32_t                    queueFamilyIndex;
} VkCommandPoolCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is a bitmask of VkCommandPoolCreateFlagBits indicating usage behavior for the pool and command buffers allocated from it.
queueFamilyIndex designates a queue family as described in section Queue Family Properties. All command buffers allocated from this command pool must be submitted on queues from the same queue family.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be a valid combination of VkCommandPoolCreateFlagBits values

Bits which can be set in VkCommandPoolCreateInfo::flags to specify usage behavior for a command pool are:

typedef enum VkCommandPoolCreateFlagBits {
    VK_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_TRANSIENT_BIT = 0x00000001,
    VK_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_RESET_COMMAND_BUFFER_BIT = 0x00000002,
} VkCommandPoolCreateFlagBits;

VK_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_TRANSIENT_BIT specifies that command buffers allocated from the pool will be short-lived, meaning that they will be reset or freed in a relatively short timeframe. This flag may be used by the implementation to control memory allocation behavior within the pool.
VK_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_RESET_COMMAND_BUFFER_BIT allows any command buffer allocated from a pool to be individually reset to the initial state; either by calling vkResetCommandBuffer, or via the implicit reset when calling vkBeginCommandBuffer. If this flag is not set on a pool, then vkResetCommandBuffer must not be called for any command buffer allocated from that pool.

typedef VkFlags VkCommandPoolCreateFlags;

VkCommandPoolCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkCommandPoolCreateFlagBits.

To reset a command pool, call:

VkResult vkResetCommandPool(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkCommandPool                               commandPool,
    VkCommandPoolResetFlags                     flags);

device is the logical device that owns the command pool.
commandPool is the command pool to reset.
flags is a bitmask of VkCommandPoolResetFlagBits controlling the reset operation.

Resetting a command pool recycles all of the resources from all of the command buffers allocated from the command pool back to the command pool. All command buffers that have been allocated from the command pool are put in the initial state.

Any primary command buffer allocated from another VkCommandPool that is in the recording or executable state and has a secondary command buffer allocated from commandPool recorded into it, becomes invalid.

Valid Usage

All VkCommandBuffer objects allocated from commandPool must not be in the pending state

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
commandPool must be a valid VkCommandPool handle
flags must be a valid combination of VkCommandPoolResetFlagBits values
commandPool must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandPool must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

Bits which can be set in vkResetCommandPool::flags to control the reset operation are:

typedef enum VkCommandPoolResetFlagBits {
    VK_COMMAND_POOL_RESET_RELEASE_RESOURCES_BIT = 0x00000001,
} VkCommandPoolResetFlagBits;

VK_COMMAND_POOL_RESET_RELEASE_RESOURCES_BIT specifies that resetting a command pool recycles all of the resources from the command pool back to the system.

typedef VkFlags VkCommandPoolResetFlags;

VkCommandPoolResetFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkCommandPoolResetFlagBits.

To destroy a command pool, call:

void vkDestroyCommandPool(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkCommandPool                               commandPool,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the command pool.
commandPool is the handle of the command pool to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

When a pool is destroyed, all command buffers allocated from the pool are freed.

Valid Usage

All VkCommandBuffer objects allocated from commandPool must not be in the pending state.
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when commandPool was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when commandPool was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If commandPool is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, commandPool must be a valid VkCommandPool handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If commandPool is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandPool must be externally synchronized

5.3. Command Buffer Allocation and Management

To allocate command buffers, call:

VkResult vkAllocateCommandBuffers(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo*          pAllocateInfo,
    VkCommandBuffer*                            pCommandBuffers);

device is the logical device that owns the command pool.
pAllocateInfo is a pointer to an instance of the VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo structure describing parameters of the allocation.
pCommandBuffers is a pointer to an array of VkCommandBuffer handles in which the resulting command buffer objects are returned. The array must be at least the length specified by the commandBufferCount member of pAllocateInfo. Each allocated command buffer begins in the initial state.

When command buffers are first allocated, they are in the initial state.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pAllocateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo structure
pCommandBuffers must be a valid pointer to an array of pAllocateInfo::commandBufferCount VkCommandBuffer handles

Host Synchronization

Host access to pAllocateInfo::commandPool must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo {
    VkStructureType         sType;
    const void*             pNext;
    VkCommandPool           commandPool;
    VkCommandBufferLevel    level;
    uint32_t                commandBufferCount;
} VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
commandPool is the command pool from which the command buffers are allocated.
level is an VkCommandBufferLevel value specifying the command buffer level.
commandBufferCount is the number of command buffers to allocate from the pool.

Valid Usage

commandBufferCount must be greater than 0

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_COMMAND_BUFFER_ALLOCATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
commandPool must be a valid VkCommandPool handle
level must be a valid VkCommandBufferLevel value

Possible values of VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo::level, specifying the command buffer level, are:

typedef enum VkCommandBufferLevel {
    VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_LEVEL_PRIMARY = 0,
    VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_LEVEL_SECONDARY = 1,
} VkCommandBufferLevel;

VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_LEVEL_PRIMARY specifies a primary command buffer.
VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_LEVEL_SECONDARY specifies a secondary command buffer.

To reset command buffers, call:

VkResult vkResetCommandBuffer(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    VkCommandBufferResetFlags                   flags);

commandBuffer is the command buffer to reset. The command buffer can be in any state other than pending, and is moved into the initial state.
flags is a bitmask of VkCommandBufferResetFlagBits controlling the reset operation.

Any primary command buffer that is in the recording or executable state and has commandBuffer recorded into it, becomes invalid.

Valid Usage

commandBuffer must not be in the pending state
commandBuffer must have been allocated from a pool that was created with the VK_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_RESET_COMMAND_BUFFER_BIT

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
flags must be a valid combination of VkCommandBufferResetFlagBits values

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

Bits which can be set in vkResetCommandBuffer::flags to control the reset operation are:

typedef enum VkCommandBufferResetFlagBits {
    VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_RESET_RELEASE_RESOURCES_BIT = 0x00000001,
} VkCommandBufferResetFlagBits;

VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_RESET_RELEASE_RESOURCES_BIT specifies that most or all memory resources currently owned by the command buffer should be returned to the parent command pool. If this flag is not set, then the command buffer may hold onto memory resources and reuse them when recording commands. commandBuffer is moved to the initial state.

typedef VkFlags VkCommandBufferResetFlags;

VkCommandBufferResetFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkCommandBufferResetFlagBits.

To free command buffers, call:

void vkFreeCommandBuffers(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkCommandPool                               commandPool,
    uint32_t                                    commandBufferCount,
    const VkCommandBuffer*                      pCommandBuffers);

device is the logical device that owns the command pool.
commandPool is the command pool from which the command buffers were allocated.
commandBufferCount is the length of the pCommandBuffers array.
pCommandBuffers is an array of handles of command buffers to free.

Any primary command buffer that is in the recording or executable state and has any element of pCommandBuffers recorded into it, becomes invalid.

Valid Usage

All elements of pCommandBuffers must not be in the pending state
pCommandBuffers must be a valid pointer to an array of commandBufferCount VkCommandBuffer handles, each element of which must either be a valid handle or NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
commandPool must be a valid VkCommandPool handle
commandBufferCount must be greater than 0
commandPool must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device
Each element of pCommandBuffers that is a valid handle must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from commandPool

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandPool must be externally synchronized
Host access to each member of pCommandBuffers must be externally synchronized

5.4. Command Buffer Recording

To begin recording a command buffer, call:

VkResult vkBeginCommandBuffer(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    const VkCommandBufferBeginInfo*             pBeginInfo);

commandBuffer is the handle of the command buffer which is to be put in the recording state.
pBeginInfo is an instance of the VkCommandBufferBeginInfo structure, which defines additional information about how the command buffer begins recording.

Valid Usage

commandBuffer must not be in the recording or pending state.
If commandBuffer was allocated from a VkCommandPool which did not have the VK_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_RESET_COMMAND_BUFFER_BIT flag set, commandBuffer must be in the initial state.
If commandBuffer is a secondary command buffer, the pInheritanceInfo member of pBeginInfo must be a valid VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo structure
If commandBuffer is a secondary command buffer and either the occlusionQueryEnable member of the pInheritanceInfo member of pBeginInfo is VK_FALSE, or the precise occlusion queries feature is not enabled, the queryFlags member of the pInheritanceInfo member pBeginInfo must not contain VK_QUERY_CONTROL_PRECISE_BIT

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
pBeginInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkCommandBufferBeginInfo structure

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkCommandBufferBeginInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkCommandBufferBeginInfo {
    VkStructureType                          sType;
    const void*                              pNext;
    VkCommandBufferUsageFlags                flags;
    const VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo*    pInheritanceInfo;
} VkCommandBufferBeginInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is a bitmask of VkCommandBufferUsageFlagBits specifying usage behavior for the command buffer.
pInheritanceInfo is a pointer to a VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo structure, which is used if commandBuffer is a secondary command buffer. If this is a primary command buffer, then this value is ignored.

Valid Usage

If flags contains VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_RENDER_PASS_CONTINUE_BIT, the renderPass member of pInheritanceInfo must be a valid VkRenderPass
If flags contains VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_RENDER_PASS_CONTINUE_BIT, the subpass member of pInheritanceInfo must be a valid subpass index within the renderPass member of pInheritanceInfo
If flags contains VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_RENDER_PASS_CONTINUE_BIT, the framebuffer member of pInheritanceInfo must be either VK_NULL_HANDLE, or a valid VkFramebuffer that is compatible with the renderPass member of pInheritanceInfo

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_COMMAND_BUFFER_BEGIN_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be a valid combination of VkCommandBufferUsageFlagBits values

Bits which can be set in VkCommandBufferBeginInfo::flags to specify usage behavior for a command buffer are:

typedef enum VkCommandBufferUsageFlagBits {
    VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_ONE_TIME_SUBMIT_BIT = 0x00000001,
    VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_RENDER_PASS_CONTINUE_BIT = 0x00000002,
    VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT = 0x00000004,
} VkCommandBufferUsageFlagBits;

VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_ONE_TIME_SUBMIT_BIT specifies that each recording of the command buffer will only be submitted once, and the command buffer will be reset and recorded again between each submission.
VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_RENDER_PASS_CONTINUE_BIT specifies that a secondary command buffer is considered to be entirely inside a render pass. If this is a primary command buffer, then this bit is ignored.
VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT specifies that a command buffer can be resubmitted to a queue while it is in the pending state, and recorded into multiple primary command buffers.

typedef VkFlags VkCommandBufferUsageFlags;

VkCommandBufferUsageFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkCommandBufferUsageFlagBits.

If the command buffer is a secondary command buffer, then the VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo structure defines any state that will be inherited from the primary command buffer:

typedef struct VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo {
    VkStructureType                  sType;
    const void*                      pNext;
    VkRenderPass                     renderPass;
    uint32_t                         subpass;
    VkFramebuffer                    framebuffer;
    VkBool32                         occlusionQueryEnable;
    VkQueryControlFlags              queryFlags;
    VkQueryPipelineStatisticFlags    pipelineStatistics;
} VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
renderPass is a VkRenderPass object defining which render passes the VkCommandBuffer will be compatible with and can be executed within. If the VkCommandBuffer will not be executed within a render pass instance, renderPass is ignored.
subpass is the index of the subpass within the render pass instance that the VkCommandBuffer will be executed within. If the VkCommandBuffer will not be executed within a render pass instance, subpass is ignored.
framebuffer optionally refers to the VkFramebuffer object that the VkCommandBuffer will be rendering to if it is executed within a render pass instance. It can be VK_NULL_HANDLE if the framebuffer is not known, or if the VkCommandBuffer will not be executed within a render pass instance.

Note

Specifying the exact framebuffer that the secondary command buffer will be executed with may result in better performance at command buffer execution time.
occlusionQueryEnable specifies whether the command buffer can be executed while an occlusion query is active in the primary command buffer. If this is VK_TRUE, then this command buffer can be executed whether the primary command buffer has an occlusion query active or not. If this is VK_FALSE, then the primary command buffer must not have an occlusion query active.
queryFlags specifies the query flags that can be used by an active occlusion query in the primary command buffer when this secondary command buffer is executed. If this value includes the VK_QUERY_CONTROL_PRECISE_BIT bit, then the active query can return boolean results or actual sample counts. If this bit is not set, then the active query must not use the VK_QUERY_CONTROL_PRECISE_BIT bit.
pipelineStatistics is a bitmask of VkQueryPipelineStatisticFlagBits specifying the set of pipeline statistics that can be counted by an active query in the primary command buffer when this secondary command buffer is executed. If this value includes a given bit, then this command buffer can be executed whether the primary command buffer has a pipeline statistics query active that includes this bit or not. If this value excludes a given bit, then the active pipeline statistics query must not be from a query pool that counts that statistic.

Valid Usage

If the inherited queries feature is not enabled, occlusionQueryEnable must be VK_FALSE
If the inherited queries feature is enabled, queryFlags must be a valid combination of VkQueryControlFlagBits values
If the pipeline statistics queries feature is not enabled, pipelineStatistics must be 0

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_COMMAND_BUFFER_INHERITANCE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
Both of framebuffer, and renderPass that are valid handles must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

If VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT was not set when creating a command buffer, that command buffer must not be submitted to a queue whilst it is already in the pending state. If VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT is not set on a secondary command buffer, that command buffer must not be used more than once in a given primary command buffer.

Note

On some implementations, not using the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT bit enables command buffers to be patched in-place if needed, rather than creating a copy of the command buffer.

If a command buffer is in the invalid, or executable state, and the command buffer was allocated from a command pool with the VK_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_RESET_COMMAND_BUFFER_BIT flag set, then vkBeginCommandBuffer implicitly resets the command buffer, behaving as if vkResetCommandBuffer had been called with VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_RESET_RELEASE_RESOURCES_BIT not set. After the implicit reset, commandBuffer is moved to the recording state.

Once recording starts, an application records a sequence of commands (vkCmd*) to set state in the command buffer, draw, dispatch, and other commands.

To complete recording of a command buffer, call:

VkResult vkEndCommandBuffer(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer);

commandBuffer is the command buffer to complete recording.

If there was an error during recording, the application will be notified by an unsuccessful return code returned by vkEndCommandBuffer. If the application wishes to further use the command buffer, the command buffer must be reset. The command buffer must have been in the recording state, and is moved to the executable state.

Valid Usage

commandBuffer must be in the recording state.
If commandBuffer is a primary command buffer, there must not be an active render pass instance
All queries made active during the recording of commandBuffer must have been made inactive

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

When a command buffer is in the executable state, it can be submitted to a queue for execution.

5.5. Command Buffer Submission

To submit command buffers to a queue, call:

VkResult vkQueueSubmit(
    VkQueue                                     queue,
    uint32_t                                    submitCount,
    const VkSubmitInfo*                         pSubmits,
    VkFence                                     fence);

queue is the queue that the command buffers will be submitted to.
submitCount is the number of elements in the pSubmits array.
pSubmits is a pointer to an array of VkSubmitInfo structures, each specifying a command buffer submission batch.
fence is an optional handle to a fence to be signaled once all submitted command buffers have completed execution. If fence is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, it defines a fence signal operation.

Note

Submission can be a high overhead operation, and applications should attempt to batch work together into as few calls to vkQueueSubmit as possible.

vkQueueSubmit is a queue submission command, with each batch defined by an element of pSubmits as an instance of the VkSubmitInfo structure. Batches begin execution in the order they appear in pSubmits, but may complete out of order.

Fence and semaphore operations submitted with vkQueueSubmit have additional ordering constraints compared to other submission commands, with dependencies involving previous and subsequent queue operations. Information about these additional constraints can be found in the semaphore and fence sections of the synchronization chapter.

Details on the interaction of pWaitDstStageMask with synchronization are described in the semaphore wait operation section of the synchronization chapter.

The order that batches appear in pSubmits is used to determine submission order, and thus all the implicit ordering guarantees that respect it. Other than these implicit ordering guarantees and any explicit synchronization primitives, these batches may overlap or otherwise execute out of order.

If any command buffer submitted to this queue is in the executable state, it is moved to the pending state. Once execution of all submissions of a command buffer complete, it moves from the pending state, back to the executable state. If a command buffer was recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_ONE_TIME_SUBMIT_BIT flag, it instead moves back to the invalid state.

If vkQueueSubmit fails, it may return VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY or VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY. If it does, the implementation must ensure that the state and contents of any resources or synchronization primitives referenced by the submitted command buffers and any semaphores referenced by pSubmits is unaffected by the call or its failure. If vkQueueSubmit fails in such a way that the implementation is unable to make that guarantee, the implementation must return VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST. See Lost Device.

Valid Usage

If fence is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, fence must be unsignaled
If fence is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, fence must not be associated with any other queue command that has not yet completed execution on that queue
Any calls to vkCmdSetEvent, vkCmdResetEvent or vkCmdWaitEvents that have been recorded into any of the command buffer elements of the pCommandBuffers member of any element of pSubmits, must not reference any VkEvent that is referenced by any of those commands in a command buffer that has been submitted to another queue and is still in the pending state.
Any stage flag included in any element of the pWaitDstStageMask member of any element of pSubmits must be a pipeline stage supported by one of the capabilities of queue, as specified in the table of supported pipeline stages.
Each element of the pSignalSemaphores member of any element of pSubmits must be unsignaled when the semaphore signal operation it defines is executed on the device
When a semaphore unsignal operation defined by any element of the pWaitSemaphores member of any element of pSubmits executes on queue, no other queue must be waiting on the same semaphore.
All elements of the pWaitSemaphores member of all elements of pSubmits must be semaphores that are signaled, or have semaphore signal operations previously submitted for execution.
Each element of the pCommandBuffers member of each element of pSubmits must be in the pending or executable state.
If any element of the pCommandBuffers member of any element of pSubmits was not recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT, it must not be in the pending state.
Any secondary command buffers recorded into any element of the pCommandBuffers member of any element of pSubmits must be in the pending or executable state.
If any secondary command buffers recorded into any element of the pCommandBuffers member of any element of pSubmits was not recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT, it must not be in the pending state.
Each element of the pCommandBuffers member of each element of pSubmits must have been allocated from a VkCommandPool that was created for the same queue family queue belongs to.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

queue must be a valid VkQueue handle
If submitCount is not 0, pSubmits must be a valid pointer to an array of submitCount valid VkSubmitInfo structures
If fence is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, fence must be a valid VkFence handle
Both of fence, and queue that are valid handles must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

Host Synchronization

Host access to queue must be externally synchronized
Host access to pSubmits[].pWaitSemaphores[] must be externally synchronized
Host access to pSubmits[].pSignalSemaphores[] must be externally synchronized
Host access to fence must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Command Buffer Levels	Render Pass Scope	Supported Queue Types	Pipeline Type
-	-	Any	-

Any

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST

The VkSubmitInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkSubmitInfo {
    VkStructureType                sType;
    const void*                    pNext;
    uint32_t                       waitSemaphoreCount;
    const VkSemaphore*             pWaitSemaphores;
    const VkPipelineStageFlags*    pWaitDstStageMask;
    uint32_t                       commandBufferCount;
    const VkCommandBuffer*         pCommandBuffers;
    uint32_t                       signalSemaphoreCount;
    const VkSemaphore*             pSignalSemaphores;
} VkSubmitInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
waitSemaphoreCount is the number of semaphores upon which to wait before executing the command buffers for the batch.
pWaitSemaphores is a pointer to an array of semaphores upon which to wait before the command buffers for this batch begin execution. If semaphores to wait on are provided, they define a semaphore wait operation.
pWaitDstStageMask is a pointer to an array of pipeline stages at which each corresponding semaphore wait will occur.
commandBufferCount is the number of command buffers to execute in the batch.
pCommandBuffers is a pointer to an array of command buffers to execute in the batch.
signalSemaphoreCount is the number of semaphores to be signaled once the commands specified in pCommandBuffers have completed execution.
pSignalSemaphores is a pointer to an array of semaphores which will be signaled when the command buffers for this batch have completed execution. If semaphores to be signaled are provided, they define a semaphore signal operation.

The order that command buffers appear in pCommandBuffers is used to determine submission order, and thus all the implicit ordering guarantees that respect it. Other than these implicit ordering guarantees and any explicit synchronization primitives, these command buffers may overlap or otherwise execute out of order.

Valid Usage

Each element of pCommandBuffers must not have been allocated with VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_LEVEL_SECONDARY
If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, each element of pWaitDstStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, each element of pWaitDstStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
Each element of pWaitDstStageMask must not include VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_SUBMIT_INFO
pNext must be NULL
If waitSemaphoreCount is not 0, pWaitSemaphores must be a valid pointer to an array of waitSemaphoreCount valid VkSemaphore handles
If waitSemaphoreCount is not 0, pWaitDstStageMask must be a valid pointer to an array of waitSemaphoreCount valid combinations of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
Each element of pWaitDstStageMask must not be 0
If commandBufferCount is not 0, pCommandBuffers must be a valid pointer to an array of commandBufferCount valid VkCommandBuffer handles
If signalSemaphoreCount is not 0, pSignalSemaphores must be a valid pointer to an array of signalSemaphoreCount valid VkSemaphore handles
Each of the elements of pCommandBuffers, the elements of pSignalSemaphores, and the elements of pWaitSemaphores that are valid handles must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

5.6. Queue Forward Progress

The application must ensure that command buffer submissions will be able to complete without any subsequent operations by the application on any queue. After any call to vkQueueSubmit, for every queued wait on a semaphore there must be a prior signal of that semaphore that will not be consumed by a different wait on the semaphore.

Command buffers in the submission can include vkCmdWaitEvents commands that wait on events that will not be signaled by earlier commands in the queue. Such events must be signaled by the application using vkSetEvent, and the vkCmdWaitEvents commands that wait upon them must not be inside a render pass instance. Implementations may have limits on how long the command buffer will wait, in order to avoid interfering with progress of other clients of the device. If the event is not signaled within these limits, results are undefined and may include device loss.

5.7. Secondary Command Buffer Execution

A secondary command buffer must not be directly submitted to a queue. Instead, secondary command buffers are recorded to execute as part of a primary command buffer with the command:

void vkCmdExecuteCommands(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    uint32_t                                    commandBufferCount,
    const VkCommandBuffer*                      pCommandBuffers);

commandBuffer is a handle to a primary command buffer that the secondary command buffers are executed in.
commandBufferCount is the length of the pCommandBuffers array.
pCommandBuffers is an array of secondary command buffer handles, which are recorded to execute in the primary command buffer in the order they are listed in the array.

If any element of pCommandBuffers was not recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT flag, and it was recorded into any other primary command buffer which is currently in the executable or recording state, that primary command buffer becomes invalid.

Valid Usage

commandBuffer must have been allocated with a level of VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_LEVEL_PRIMARY
Each element of pCommandBuffers must have been allocated with a level of VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_LEVEL_SECONDARY
Each element of pCommandBuffers must be in the pending or executable state.
If any element of pCommandBuffers was not recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT flag, and it was recorded into any other primary command buffer, that primary command buffer must not be in the pending state
If any element of pCommandBuffers was not recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT flag, it must not be in the pending state.
If any element of pCommandBuffers was not recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT flag, it must not have already been recorded to commandBuffer.
If any element of pCommandBuffers was not recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_SIMULTANEOUS_USE_BIT flag, it must not appear more than once in pCommandBuffers.
Each element of pCommandBuffers must have been allocated from a VkCommandPool that was created for the same queue family as the VkCommandPool from which commandBuffer was allocated
If vkCmdExecuteCommands is being called within a render pass instance, that render pass instance must have been begun with the contents parameter of vkCmdBeginRenderPass set to VK_SUBPASS_CONTENTS_SECONDARY_COMMAND_BUFFERS
If vkCmdExecuteCommands is being called within a render pass instance, each element of pCommandBuffers must have been recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_RENDER_PASS_CONTINUE_BIT
If vkCmdExecuteCommands is being called within a render pass instance, each element of pCommandBuffers must have been recorded with VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo::subpass set to the index of the subpass which the given command buffer will be executed in
If vkCmdExecuteCommands is being called within a render pass instance, the render passes specified in the pname::pBeginInfo::pInheritanceInfo::renderPass members of the vkBeginCommandBuffer commands used to begin recording each element of pCommandBuffers must be compatible with the current render pass.
If vkCmdExecuteCommands is being called within a render pass instance, and any element of pCommandBuffers was recorded with VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo::framebuffer not equal to VK_NULL_HANDLE, that VkFramebuffer must match the VkFramebuffer used in the current render pass instance
If vkCmdExecuteCommands is not being called within a render pass instance, each element of pCommandBuffers must not have been recorded with the VK_COMMAND_BUFFER_USAGE_RENDER_PASS_CONTINUE_BIT
If the inherited queries feature is not enabled, commandBuffer must not have any queries active
If commandBuffer has a VK_QUERY_TYPE_OCCLUSION query active, then each element of pCommandBuffers must have been recorded with VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo::occlusionQueryEnable set to VK_TRUE
If commandBuffer has a VK_QUERY_TYPE_OCCLUSION query active, then each element of pCommandBuffers must have been recorded with VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo::queryFlags having all bits set that are set for the query
If commandBuffer has a VK_QUERY_TYPE_PIPELINE_STATISTICS query active, then each element of pCommandBuffers must have been recorded with VkCommandBufferInheritanceInfo::pipelineStatistics having all bits set that are set in the VkQueryPool the query uses
Each element of pCommandBuffers must not begin any query types that are active in commandBuffer

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
pCommandBuffers must be a valid pointer to an array of commandBufferCount valid VkCommandBuffer handles
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support transfer, graphics, or compute operations
commandBuffer must be a primary VkCommandBuffer
commandBufferCount must be greater than 0
Both of commandBuffer, and the elements of pCommandBuffers must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Command Buffer Levels	Render Pass Scope	Supported Queue Types	Pipeline Type
Primary	Both	Transfer Graphics Compute

Primary

Both

Transfer
Graphics
Compute

6. Synchronization and Cache Control

Synchronization of access to resources is primarily the responsibility of the application in Vulkan. The order of execution of commands with respect to the host and other commands on the device has few implicit guarantees, and needs to be explicitly specified. Memory caches and other optimizations are also explicitly managed, requiring that the flow of data through the system is largely under application control.

Whilst some implicit guarantees exist between commands, five explicit synchronization mechanisms are exposed by Vulkan:

Fences: Fences can be used to communicate to the host that execution of some task on the device has completed.
Semaphores: Semaphores can be used to control resource access across multiple queues.
Events: Events provide a fine-grained synchronization primitive which can be signaled either within a command buffer or by the host, and can be waited upon within a command buffer or queried on the host.
Pipeline Barriers: Pipeline barriers also provide synchronization control within a command buffer, but at a single point, rather than with separate signal and wait operations.
Render Passes: Render passes provide a useful synchronization framework for most rendering tasks, built upon the concepts in this chapter. Many cases that would otherwise need an application to use other synchronization primitives can be expressed more efficiently as part of a render pass.

6.1. Execution and Memory Dependencies

An operation is an arbitrary amount of work to be executed on the host, a device, or an external entity such as a presentation engine. Synchronization commands introduce explicit execution dependencies, and memory dependencies between two sets of operations defined by the command’s two synchronization scopes.

The synchronization scopes define which other operations a synchronization command is able to create execution dependencies with. Any type of operation that is not in a synchronization command’s synchronization scopes will not be included in the resulting dependency. For example, for many synchronization commands, the synchronization scopes can be limited to just operations executing in specific pipeline stages, which allows other pipeline stages to be excluded from a dependency. Other scoping options are possible, depending on the particular command.

An execution dependency is a guarantee that for two sets of operations, the first set must happen-before the second set. If an operation happens-before another operation, then the first operation must complete before the second operation is initiated. More precisely:

Let A and B be separate sets of operations.
Let S be a synchronization command.
Let A_S and B_S be the synchronization scopes of S.
Let A' be the intersection of sets A and A_S.
Let B' be the intersection of sets B and B_S.
Submitting A, S and B for execution, in that order, will result in execution dependency E between A' and B'.
Execution dependency E guarantees that A' happens-before B'.

An execution dependency chain is a sequence of execution dependencies that form a happens-before relation between the first dependency’s A' and the final dependency’s B'. For each consecutive pair of execution dependencies, a chain exists if the intersection of B_S in the first dependency and A_S in the second dependency is not an empty set. The formation of a single execution dependency from an execution dependency chain can be described by substituting the following in the description of execution dependencies:

Let S be a set of synchronization commands that generate an execution dependency chain.
Let A_S be the first synchronization scope of the first command in S.
Let B_S be the second synchronization scope of the last command in S.

Note

An execution dependency is inherently also multiple execution dependencies - a dependency exists between each subset of A' and each subset of B', and the same is true for execution dependency chains. For example, a synchronization command with multiple pipeline stages in its stage masks effectively generates one dependency between each source stage and each destination stage. This can be useful to think about when considering how execution chains are formed if they do not involve all parts of a synchronization command’s dependency. Similarly, any set of adjacent dependencies in an execution dependency chain can be considered an execution dependency chain in its own right.

Execution dependencies alone are not sufficient to guarantee that values resulting from writes in one set of operations can be read from another set of operations.

Two additional types of operation are used to control memory access. Availability operations cause the values generated by specified memory write accesses to become available for future access. Any available value remains available until a subsequent write to the same memory location occurs (whether it is made available or not) or the memory is freed. Visibility operations cause any available values to become visible to specified memory accesses.

A memory dependency is an execution dependency which includes availability and visibility operations such that:

The first set of operations happens-before the availability operation.
The availability operation happens-before the visibility operation.
The visibility operation happens-before the second set of operations.

Once written values are made visible to a particular type of memory access, they can be read or written by that type of memory access. Most synchronization commands in Vulkan define a memory dependency.

The specific memory accesses that are made available and visible are defined by the access scopes of a memory dependency. Any type of access that is in a memory dependency’s first access scope and occurs in A' is made available. Any type of access that is in a memory dependency’s second access scope and occurs in B' has any available writes made visible to it. Any type of operation that is not in a synchronization command’s access scopes will not be included in the resulting dependency.

A memory dependency enforces availability and visibility of memory accesses and execution order between two sets of operations. Adding to the description of execution dependency chains:

Let a be the set of memory accesses performed by A'.
Let b be the set of memory accesses performed by B'.
Let a_S be the first access scope of the first command in S.
Let b_S be the second access scope of the last command in S.
Let a' be the intersection of sets a and a_S.
Let b' be the intersection of sets b and b_S.
Submitting A, S and B for execution, in that order, will result in a memory dependency m between A' and B'.
Memory dependency m guarantees that:
- Memory writes in a' are made available.
- Available memory writes, including those from a', are made visible to b'.

Note

Execution and memory dependencies are used to solve data hazards, i.e. to ensure that read and write operations occur in a well-defined order. Write-after-read hazards can be solved with just an execution dependency, but read-after-write and write-after-write hazards need appropriate memory dependencies to be included between them. If an application does not include dependencies to solve these hazards, the results and execution orders of memory accesses are undefined.

6.1.1. Image Layout Transitions

Image subresources can be transitioned from one layout to another as part of a memory dependency (e.g. by using an image memory barrier). When a layout transition is specified in a memory dependency, it happens-after the availability operations in the memory dependency, and happens-before the visibility operations. Image layout transitions may perform read and write accesses on all memory bound to the image subresource range, so applications must ensure that all memory writes have been made available before a layout transition is executed. Available memory is automatically made visible to a layout transition, and writes performed by a layout transition are automatically made available.

Layout transitions always apply to a particular image subresource range, and specify both an old layout and new layout. If the old layout does not match the new layout, a transition occurs. The old layout must match the current layout of the image subresource range, with one exception. The old layout can always be specified as VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED, though doing so invalidates the contents of the image subresource range.

Note

Setting the old layout to VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED implies that the contents of the image subresource need not be preserved. Implementations may use this information to avoid performing expensive data transition operations.

Note

Applications must ensure that layout transitions happen-after all operations accessing the image with the old layout, and happen-before any operations that will access the image with the new layout. Layout transitions are potentially read/write operations, so not defining appropriate memory dependencies to guarantee this will result in a data race.

Image layout transitions interact with memory aliasing.

6.1.2. Pipeline Stages

The work performed by an action or synchronization command consists of multiple operations, which are performed as a sequence of logically independent steps known as pipeline stages. The exact pipeline stages executed depend on the particular command that is used, and current command buffer state when the command was recorded. Drawing commands, dispatching commands, copy commands, clear commands, and synchronization commands all execute in different sets of pipeline stages. Synchronization commands don’t execute in a defined pipeline, but do execute VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT and VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT.

Note

Operations performed by synchronization commands (e.g. availability and visibility operations) are not executed by a defined pipeline stage. However other commands can still synchronize with them via the VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT and VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT pipeline stages.

Execution of operations across pipeline stages must adhere to implicit ordering guarantees, particularly including pipeline stage order. Otherwise, execution across pipeline stages may overlap or execute out of order with regards to other stages, unless otherwise enforced by an execution dependency.

Several of the synchronization commands include pipeline stage parameters, restricting the synchronization scopes for that command to just those stages. This allows fine grained control over the exact execution dependencies and accesses performed by action commands. Implementations should use these pipeline stages to avoid unnecessary stalls or cache flushing.

Bits which can be set, specifying pipeline stages, are:

typedef enum VkPipelineStageFlagBits {
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT = 0x00000001,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_DRAW_INDIRECT_BIT = 0x00000002,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_INPUT_BIT = 0x00000004,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT = 0x00000008,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT = 0x00000010,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT = 0x00000020,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT = 0x00000040,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT = 0x00000080,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT = 0x00000100,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT = 0x00000200,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT = 0x00000400,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COMPUTE_SHADER_BIT = 0x00000800,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TRANSFER_BIT = 0x00001000,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT = 0x00002000,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT = 0x00004000,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_GRAPHICS_BIT = 0x00008000,
    VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_COMMANDS_BIT = 0x00010000,
} VkPipelineStageFlagBits;

VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT specifies the stage of the pipeline where any commands are initially received by the queue.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_DRAW_INDIRECT_BIT specifies the stage of the pipeline where Draw/DispatchIndirect data structures are consumed.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_INPUT_BIT specifies the stage of the pipeline where vertex and index buffers are consumed.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT specifies the vertex shader stage.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT specifies the tessellation control shader stage.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT specifies the tessellation evaluation shader stage.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT specifies the geometry shader stage.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT specifies the fragment shader stage.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT specifies the stage of the pipeline where early fragment tests (depth and stencil tests before fragment shading) are performed. This stage also includes subpass load operations for framebuffer attachments with a depth/stencil format.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT specifies the stage of the pipeline where late fragment tests (depth and stencil tests after fragment shading) are performed. This stage also includes subpass store operations for framebuffer attachments with a depth/stencil format.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT specifies the stage of the pipeline after blending where the final color values are output from the pipeline. This stage also includes subpass load and store operations and multisample resolve operations for framebuffer attachments with a color format.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TRANSFER_BIT specifies the execution of copy commands. This includes the operations resulting from all copy commands, clear commands (with the exception of vkCmdClearAttachments), and vkCmdCopyQueryPoolResults.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COMPUTE_SHADER_BIT specifies the execution of a compute shader.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT specifies the final stage in the pipeline where operations generated by all commands complete execution.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT specifies a pseudo-stage indicating execution on the host of reads/writes of device memory. This stage is not invoked by any commands recorded in a command buffer.
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_GRAPHICS_BIT specifies the execution of all graphics pipeline stages, and is equivalent to the logical OR of:
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_DRAW_INDIRECT_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_INPUT_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT
- VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_COMMANDS_BIT is equivalent to the logical OR of every other pipeline stage flag that is supported on the queue it is used with.

Note

An execution dependency with only VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT in the destination stage mask will only prevent that stage from executing in subsequently submitted commands. As this stage does not perform any actual execution, this is not observable - in effect, it does not delay processing of subsequent commands. Similarly an execution dependency with only VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT in the source stage mask will effectively not wait for any prior commands to complete.

When defining a memory dependency, using only VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT would never make any accesses available and/or visible because these stages do not access memory.

VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT and VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT are useful for accomplishing layout transitions and queue ownership operations when the required execution dependency is satisfied by other means - for example, semaphore operations between queues.

typedef VkFlags VkPipelineStageFlags;

VkPipelineStageFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkPipelineStageFlagBits.

If a synchronization command includes a source stage mask, its first synchronization scope only includes execution of the pipeline stages specified in that mask, and its first access scope only includes memory access performed by pipeline stages specified in that mask. If a synchronization command includes a destination stage mask, its second synchronization scope only includes execution of the pipeline stages specified in that mask, and its second access scope only includes memory access performed by pipeline stages specified in that mask.

Note

Including a particular pipeline stage in the first synchronization scope of a command implicitly includes logically earlier pipeline stages in the synchronization scope. Similarly, the second synchronization scope includes logically later pipeline stages.

However, note that access scopes are not affected in this way - only the precise stages specified are considered part of each access scope.

Certain pipeline stages are only available on queues that support a particular set of operations. The following table lists, for each pipeline stage flag, which queue capability flag must be supported by the queue. When multiple flags are enumerated in the second column of the table, it means that the pipeline stage is supported on the queue if it supports any of the listed capability flags. For further details on queue capabilities see Physical Device Enumeration and Queues.

Table 3. Supported pipeline stage flags
Pipeline stage flag	Required queue capability flag
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT`	None required
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_DRAW_INDIRECT_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT` or `VK_QUEUE_COMPUTE_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_INPUT_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COMPUTE_SHADER_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_COMPUTE_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TRANSFER_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`, `VK_QUEUE_COMPUTE_BIT` or `VK_QUEUE_TRANSFER_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT`	None required
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT`	None required
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_GRAPHICS_BIT`	`VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT`
`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_COMMANDS_BIT`	None required

Pipeline stages that execute as a result of a command logically complete execution in a specific order, such that completion of a logically later pipeline stage must not happen-before completion of a logically earlier stage. This means that including any stage in the source stage mask for a particular synchronization command also implies that any logically earlier stages are included in A_S for that command.

Similarly, initiation of a logically earlier pipeline stage must not happen-after initiation of a logically later pipeline stage. Including any given stage in the destination stage mask for a particular synchronization command also implies that any logically later stages are included in B_S for that command.

Note

Implementations may not support synchronization at every pipeline stage for every synchronization operation. If a pipeline stage that an implementation does not support synchronization for appears in a source stage mask, it may substitute any logically later stage in its place for the first synchronization scope. If a pipeline stage that an implementation does not support synchronization for appears in a destination stage mask, it may substitute any logically earlier stage in its place for the second synchronization scope.

For example, if an implementation is unable to signal an event immediately after vertex shader execution is complete, it may instead signal the event after color attachment output has completed.

If an implementation makes such a substitution, it must not affect the semantics of execution or memory dependencies or image and buffer memory barriers.

The order and set of pipeline stages executed by a given command is determined by the command’s pipeline type, as described below:

For the graphics pipeline, the following stages occur in this order:

VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_DRAW_INDIRECT_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_INPUT_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT

For the compute pipeline, the following stages occur in this order:

VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_DRAW_INDIRECT_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COMPUTE_SHADER_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT

For the transfer pipeline, the following stages occur in this order:

VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TRANSFER_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT

For host operations, only one pipeline stage occurs, so no order is guaranteed:

VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT

6.1.3. Access Types

Memory in Vulkan can be accessed from within shader invocations and via some fixed-function stages of the pipeline. The access type is a function of the descriptor type used, or how a fixed-function stage accesses memory. Each access type corresponds to a bit flag in VkAccessFlagBits.

Some synchronization commands take sets of access types as parameters to define the access scopes of a memory dependency. If a synchronization command includes a source access mask, its first access scope only includes accesses via the access types specified in that mask. Similarly, if a synchronization command includes a destination access mask, its second access scope only includes accesses via the access types specified in that mask.

Access types that can be set in an access mask include:

typedef enum VkAccessFlagBits {
    VK_ACCESS_INDIRECT_COMMAND_READ_BIT = 0x00000001,
    VK_ACCESS_INDEX_READ_BIT = 0x00000002,
    VK_ACCESS_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE_READ_BIT = 0x00000004,
    VK_ACCESS_UNIFORM_READ_BIT = 0x00000008,
    VK_ACCESS_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT = 0x00000010,
    VK_ACCESS_SHADER_READ_BIT = 0x00000020,
    VK_ACCESS_SHADER_WRITE_BIT = 0x00000040,
    VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT = 0x00000080,
    VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT = 0x00000100,
    VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT = 0x00000200,
    VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT = 0x00000400,
    VK_ACCESS_TRANSFER_READ_BIT = 0x00000800,
    VK_ACCESS_TRANSFER_WRITE_BIT = 0x00001000,
    VK_ACCESS_HOST_READ_BIT = 0x00002000,
    VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT = 0x00004000,
    VK_ACCESS_MEMORY_READ_BIT = 0x00008000,
    VK_ACCESS_MEMORY_WRITE_BIT = 0x00010000,
} VkAccessFlagBits;

VK_ACCESS_INDIRECT_COMMAND_READ_BIT specifies read access to an indirect command structure read as part of an indirect drawing or dispatch command.
VK_ACCESS_INDEX_READ_BIT specifies read access to an index buffer as part of an indexed drawing command, bound by vkCmdBindIndexBuffer.
VK_ACCESS_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE_READ_BIT specifies read access to a vertex buffer as part of a drawing command, bound by vkCmdBindVertexBuffers.
VK_ACCESS_UNIFORM_READ_BIT specifies read access to a uniform buffer.
VK_ACCESS_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT specifies read access to an input attachment within a render pass during fragment shading.
VK_ACCESS_SHADER_READ_BIT specifies read access to a storage buffer, uniform texel buffer, storage texel buffer, sampled image, or storage image.
VK_ACCESS_SHADER_WRITE_BIT specifies write access to a storage buffer, storage texel buffer, or storage image.
VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT specifies read access to a color attachment, such as via blending, logic operations, or via certain subpass load operations.
VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT specifies write access to a color or resolve attachment during a render pass or via certain subpass load and store operations.
VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT specifies read access to a depth/stencil attachment, via depth or stencil operations or via certain subpass load operations.
VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT specifies write access to a depth/stencil attachment, via depth or stencil operations or via certain subpass load and store operations.
VK_ACCESS_TRANSFER_READ_BIT specifies read access to an image or buffer in a copy operation.
VK_ACCESS_TRANSFER_WRITE_BIT specifies write access to an image or buffer in a clear or copy operation.
VK_ACCESS_HOST_READ_BIT specifies read access by a host operation. Accesses of this type are not performed through a resource, but directly on memory.
VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT specifies write access by a host operation. Accesses of this type are not performed through a resource, but directly on memory.
VK_ACCESS_MEMORY_READ_BIT specifies read access via non-specific entities. These entities include the Vulkan device and host, but may also include entities external to the Vulkan device or otherwise not part of the core Vulkan pipeline. When included in a destination access mask, makes all available writes visible to all future read accesses on entities known to the Vulkan device.
VK_ACCESS_MEMORY_WRITE_BIT specifies write access via non-specific entities. These entities include the Vulkan device and host, but may also include entities external to the Vulkan device or otherwise not part of the core Vulkan pipeline. When included in a source access mask, all writes that are performed by entities known to the Vulkan device are made available. When included in a destination access mask, makes all available writes visible to all future write accesses on entities known to the Vulkan device.

Certain access types are only performed by a subset of pipeline stages. Any synchronization command that takes both stage masks and access masks uses both to define the access scopes - only the specified access types performed by the specified stages are included in the access scope. An application must not specify an access flag in a synchronization command if it does not include a pipeline stage in the corresponding stage mask that is able to perform accesses of that type. The following table lists, for each access flag, which pipeline stages can perform that type of access.

Table 4. Supported access types
Access flag	Supported pipeline stages
`VK_ACCESS_INDIRECT_COMMAND_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_DRAW_INDIRECT_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_INDEX_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_INPUT_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_INPUT_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_UNIFORM_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT`, or `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COMPUTE_SHADER_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_SHADER_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT`, or `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COMPUTE_SHADER_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_SHADER_WRITE_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT`, `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT`, or `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COMPUTE_SHADER_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT`, or `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT`, or `VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_TRANSFER_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TRANSFER_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_TRANSFER_WRITE_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TRANSFER_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_HOST_READ_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT`	`VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT`
`VK_ACCESS_MEMORY_READ_BIT`	N/A
`VK_ACCESS_MEMORY_WRITE_BIT`	N/A

If a memory object does not have the VK_MEMORY_PROPERTY_HOST_COHERENT_BIT property, then vkFlushMappedMemoryRanges must be called in order to guarantee that writes to the memory object from the host are made visible to the VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT access type, where it can be further made available to the device by synchronization commands. Similarly, vkInvalidateMappedMemoryRanges must be called to guarantee that writes which are visible to the VK_ACCESS_HOST_READ_BIT access type are made visible to host operations.

If the memory object does have the VK_MEMORY_PROPERTY_HOST_COHERENT_BIT property flag, writes to the memory object from the host are automatically made visible to the VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT access type. Similarly, writes made visible to the VK_ACCESS_HOST_READ_BIT access type are automatically made visible to the host.

Note

The vkQueueSubmit command automatically guarantees that host writes flushed to VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT are made available if they were flushed before the command executed, so in most cases an explicit memory barrier is not needed for this case. In the few circumstances where a submit does not occur between the host write and the device read access, writes can be made available by using an explicit memory barrier.

typedef VkFlags VkAccessFlags;

VkAccessFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkAccessFlagBits.

6.1.4. Framebuffer Region Dependencies

Pipeline stages that operate on, or with respect to, the framebuffer are collectively the framebuffer-space pipeline stages. These stages are:

VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT
VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT

For these pipeline stages, an execution or memory dependency from the first set of operations to the second set can either be a single framebuffer-global dependency, or split into multiple framebuffer-local dependencies. A dependency with non-framebuffer-space pipeline stages is neither framebuffer-global nor framebuffer-local.

A framebuffer region is a set of sample (x, y, layer, sample) coordinates that is a subset of the entire framebuffer.

Both synchronization scopes of a framebuffer-local dependency include only the operations performed within corresponding framebuffer regions (as defined below). No ordering guarantees are made between different framebuffer regions for a framebuffer-local dependency.

Both synchronization scopes of a framebuffer-global dependency include operations on all framebuffer-regions.

If the first synchronization scope includes operations on pixels/fragments with N samples and the second synchronization scope includes operations on pixels/fragments with M samples, where N does not equal M, then a framebuffer region containing all samples at a given (x, y, layer) coordinate in the first synchronization scope corresponds to a region containing all samples at the same coordinate in the second synchronization scope. In other words, it is a pixel granularity dependency. If N equals M, then a framebuffer region containing a single (x, y, layer, sample) coordinate in the first synchronization scope corresponds to a region containing the same sample at the same coordinate in the second synchronization scope. In other words, it is a sample granularity dependency.

Note

Since fragment invocations are not specified to run in any particular groupings, the size of a framebuffer region is implementation-dependent, not known to the application, and must be assumed to be no larger than specified above.

Note

Practically, the pixel vs sample granularity dependency means that if an input attachment has a different number of samples than the pipeline’s rasterizationSamples, then a fragment can access any sample in the input attachment’s pixel even if it only uses framebuffer-local dependencies. If the input attachment has the same number of samples, then the fragment can only access the covered samples in its input SampleMask (i.e. the fragment operations happen-after a framebuffer-local dependency for each sample the fragment covers). To access samples that are not covered, a framebuffer-global dependency is required.

If a synchronization command includes a dependencyFlags parameter, and specifies the VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT flag, then it defines framebuffer-local dependencies for the framebuffer-space pipeline stages in that synchronization command, for all framebuffer regions. If no dependencyFlags parameter is included, or the VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT flag is not specified, then a framebuffer-global dependency is specified for those stages. The VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT flag does not affect the dependencies between non-framebuffer-space pipeline stages, nor does it affect the dependencies between framebuffer-space and non-framebuffer-space pipeline stages.

Note

Framebuffer-local dependencies are more optimal for most architectures; particularly tile-based architectures - which can keep framebuffer-regions entirely in on-chip registers and thus avoid external bandwidth across such a dependency. Including a framebuffer-global dependency in your rendering will usually force all implementations to flush data to memory, or to a higher level cache, breaking any potential locality optimizations.

6.2. Implicit Synchronization Guarantees

A small number of implicit ordering guarantees are provided by Vulkan, ensuring that the order in which commands are submitted is meaningful, and avoiding unnecessary complexity in common operations.

Submission order is a fundamental ordering in Vulkan, giving meaning to the order in which action and synchronization commands are recorded and submitted to a single queue. Explicit and implicit ordering guarantees between commands in Vulkan all work on the premise that this ordering is meaningful. This order does not itself define any execution or memory dependencies; synchronization commands and other orderings within the API use this ordering to define their scopes.

Submission order for any given set of commands is based on the order in which they were recorded to command buffers and then submitted. This order is determined as follows:

The initial order is determined by the order in which vkQueueSubmit commands are executed on the host, for a single queue, from first to last.
The order in which VkSubmitInfo structures are specified in the pSubmits parameter of vkQueueSubmit, from lowest index to highest.
The order in which command buffers are specified in the pCommandBuffers member of VkSubmitInfo, from lowest index to highest.
The order in which commands were recorded to a command buffer on the host, from first to last:
- For commands recorded outside a render pass, this includes all other commands recorded outside a render pass, including vkCmdBeginRenderPass and vkCmdEndRenderPass commands; it does not directly include commands inside a render pass.
- For commands recorded inside a render pass, this includes all other commands recorded inside the same subpass, including the vkCmdBeginRenderPass and vkCmdEndRenderPass commands that delimit the same render pass instance; it does not include commands recorded to other subpasses.

Action and synchronization commands recorded to a command buffer execute the VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT pipeline stage in submission order - forming an implicit execution dependency between this stage in each command.

State commands do not execute any operations on the device, instead they set the state of the command buffer when they execute on the host, in the order that they are recorded. Action commands consume the current state of the command buffer when they are recorded, and will execute state changes on the device as required to match the recorded state.

Query commands, the order of primitives passing through the graphics pipeline and image layout transitions as part of an image memory barrier provide additional guarantees based on submission order.

Execution of pipeline stages within a given command also has a loose ordering, dependent only on a single command.

6.3. Fences

Fences are a synchronization primitive that can be used to insert a dependency from a queue to the host. Fences have two states - signaled and unsignaled. A fence can be signaled as part of the execution of a queue submission command. Fences can be unsignaled on the host with vkResetFences. Fences can be waited on by the host with the vkWaitForFences command, and the current state can be queried with vkGetFenceStatus.

Fences are represented by VkFence handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkFence)

To create a fence, call:

VkResult vkCreateFence(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkFenceCreateInfo*                    pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkFence*                                    pFence);

device is the logical device that creates the fence.
pCreateInfo is a pointer to an instance of the VkFenceCreateInfo structure which contains information about how the fence is to be created.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pFence points to a handle in which the resulting fence object is returned.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkFenceCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pFence must be a valid pointer to a VkFence handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkFenceCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkFenceCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType       sType;
    const void*           pNext;
    VkFenceCreateFlags    flags;
} VkFenceCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is a bitmask of VkFenceCreateFlagBits specifying the initial state and behavior of the fence.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_FENCE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be a valid combination of VkFenceCreateFlagBits values

typedef enum VkFenceCreateFlagBits {
    VK_FENCE_CREATE_SIGNALED_BIT = 0x00000001,
} VkFenceCreateFlagBits;

VK_FENCE_CREATE_SIGNALED_BIT specifies that the fence object is created in the signaled state. Otherwise, it is created in the unsignaled state.

typedef VkFlags VkFenceCreateFlags;

VkFenceCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkFenceCreateFlagBits.

To destroy a fence, call:

void vkDestroyFence(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkFence                                     fence,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the fence.
fence is the handle of the fence to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

Valid Usage

All queue submission commands that refer to fence must have completed execution
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when fence was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when fence was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If fence is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, fence must be a valid VkFence handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If fence is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to fence must be externally synchronized

To query the status of a fence from the host, call:

VkResult vkGetFenceStatus(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkFence                                     fence);

device is the logical device that owns the fence.
fence is the handle of the fence to query.

Upon success, vkGetFenceStatus returns the status of the fence object, with the following return codes:

Table 5. Fence Object Status Codes
Status	Meaning
`VK_SUCCESS`	The fence specified by `fence` is signaled.
`VK_NOT_READY`	The fence specified by `fence` is unsignaled.
`VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST`	The device has been lost. See Lost Device.

If a queue submission command is pending execution, then the value returned by this command may immediately be out of date.

If the device has been lost (see Lost Device), vkGetFenceStatus may return any of the above status codes. If the device has been lost and vkGetFenceStatus is called repeatedly, it will eventually return either VK_SUCCESS or VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
fence must be a valid VkFence handle
fence must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS
VK_NOT_READY

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST

To set the state of fences to unsignaled from the host, call:

VkResult vkResetFences(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    uint32_t                                    fenceCount,
    const VkFence*                              pFences);

device is the logical device that owns the fences.
fenceCount is the number of fences to reset.
pFences is a pointer to an array of fence handles to reset.

When vkResetFences is executed on the host, it defines a fence unsignal operation for each fence, which resets the fence to the unsignaled state.

If any member of pFences is already in the unsignaled state when vkResetFences is executed, then vkResetFences has no effect on that fence.

Valid Usage

Each element of pFences must not be currently associated with any queue command that has not yet completed execution on that queue

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pFences must be a valid pointer to an array of fenceCount valid VkFence handles
fenceCount must be greater than 0
Each element of pFences must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to each member of pFences must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

When a fence is submitted to a queue as part of a queue submission command, it defines a memory dependency on the batches that were submitted as part of that command, and defines a fence signal operation which sets the fence to the signaled state.

The first synchronization scope includes every batch submitted in the same queue submission command. Fence signal operations that are defined by vkQueueSubmit additionally include in the first synchronization scope all commands that occur earlier in submission order.

The second synchronization scope only includes the fence signal operation.

The first access scope includes all memory access performed by the device.

The second access scope is empty.

To wait for one or more fences to enter the signaled state on the host, call:

VkResult vkWaitForFences(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    uint32_t                                    fenceCount,
    const VkFence*                              pFences,
    VkBool32                                    waitAll,
    uint64_t                                    timeout);

device is the logical device that owns the fences.
fenceCount is the number of fences to wait on.
pFences is a pointer to an array of fenceCount fence handles.
waitAll is the condition that must be satisfied to successfully unblock the wait. If waitAll is VK_TRUE, then the condition is that all fences in pFences are signaled. Otherwise, the condition is that at least one fence in pFences is signaled.
timeout is the timeout period in units of nanoseconds. timeout is adjusted to the closest value allowed by the implementation-dependent timeout accuracy, which may be substantially longer than one nanosecond, and may be longer than the requested period.

If the condition is satisfied when vkWaitForFences is called, then vkWaitForFences returns immediately. If the condition is not satisfied at the time vkWaitForFences is called, then vkWaitForFences will block and wait up to timeout nanoseconds for the condition to become satisfied.

If timeout is zero, then vkWaitForFences does not wait, but simply returns the current state of the fences. VK_TIMEOUT will be returned in this case if the condition is not satisfied, even though no actual wait was performed.

If the specified timeout period expires before the condition is satisfied, vkWaitForFences returns VK_TIMEOUT. If the condition is satisfied before timeout nanoseconds has expired, vkWaitForFences returns VK_SUCCESS.

If device loss occurs (see Lost Device) before the timeout has expired, vkWaitForFences must return in finite time with either VK_SUCCESS or VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST.

Note

While we guarantee that vkWaitForFences must return in finite time, no guarantees are made that it returns immediately upon device loss. However, the client can reasonably expect that the delay will be on the order of seconds and that calling vkWaitForFences will not result in a permanently (or seemingly permanently) dead process.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pFences must be a valid pointer to an array of fenceCount valid VkFence handles
fenceCount must be greater than 0
Each element of pFences must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS
VK_TIMEOUT

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST

An execution dependency is defined by waiting for a fence to become signaled, either via vkWaitForFences or by polling on vkGetFenceStatus.

The first synchronization scope includes only the fence signal operation.

The second synchronization scope includes the host operations of vkWaitForFences or vkGetFenceStatus indicating that the fence has become signaled.

Note

Signaling a fence and waiting on the host does not guarantee that the results of memory accesses will be visible to the host, as the access scope of a memory dependency defined by a fence only includes device access. A memory barrier or other memory dependency must be used to guarantee this. See the description of host access types for more information.

6.4. Semaphores

Semaphores are a synchronization primitive that can be used to insert a dependency between batches submitted to queues. Semaphores have two states - signaled and unsignaled. The state of a semaphore can be signaled after execution of a batch of commands is completed. A batch can wait for a semaphore to become signaled before it begins execution, and the semaphore is also unsignaled before the batch begins execution.

Semaphores are represented by VkSemaphore handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkSemaphore)

To create a semaphore, call:

VkResult vkCreateSemaphore(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkSemaphoreCreateInfo*                pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkSemaphore*                                pSemaphore);

device is the logical device that creates the semaphore.
pCreateInfo is a pointer to an instance of the VkSemaphoreCreateInfo structure which contains information about how the semaphore is to be created.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pSemaphore points to a handle in which the resulting semaphore object is returned.

When created, the semaphore is in the unsignaled state.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkSemaphoreCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pSemaphore must be a valid pointer to a VkSemaphore handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkSemaphoreCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkSemaphoreCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType           sType;
    const void*               pNext;
    VkSemaphoreCreateFlags    flags;
} VkSemaphoreCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_SEMAPHORE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0

typedef VkFlags VkSemaphoreCreateFlags;

VkSemaphoreCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

To destroy a semaphore, call:

void vkDestroySemaphore(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkSemaphore                                 semaphore,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the semaphore.
semaphore is the handle of the semaphore to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

Valid Usage

All submitted batches that refer to semaphore must have completed execution
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when semaphore was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when semaphore was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If semaphore is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, semaphore must be a valid VkSemaphore handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If semaphore is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to semaphore must be externally synchronized

6.4.1. Semaphore Signaling

When a batch is submitted to a queue via a queue submission, and it includes semaphores to be signaled, it defines a memory dependency on the batch, and defines semaphore signal operations which set the semaphores to the signaled state.

The first synchronization scope includes every command submitted in the same batch. Semaphore signal operations that are defined by vkQueueSubmit additionally include all commands that occur earlier in submission order.

The second synchronization scope includes only the semaphore signal operation.

The first access scope includes all memory access performed by the device.

The second access scope is empty.

6.4.2. Semaphore Waiting & Unsignaling

When a batch is submitted to a queue via a queue submission, and it includes semaphores to be waited on, it defines a memory dependency between prior semaphore signal operations and the batch, and defines semaphore unsignal operations which set the semaphores to the unsignaled state.

The first synchronization scope includes all semaphore signal operations that operate on semaphores waited on in the same batch, and that happen-before the wait completes.

The second synchronization scope includes every command submitted in the same batch. In the case of vkQueueSubmit, the second synchronization scope is limited to operations on the pipeline stages determined by the destination stage mask specified by the corresponding element of pWaitDstStageMask. Also, in the case of vkQueueSubmit, the second synchronization scope additionally includes all commands that occur later in submission order.

The first access scope is empty.

The second access scope includes all memory access performed by the device.

The semaphore unsignal operation happens-after the first set of operations in the execution dependency, and happens-before the second set of operations in the execution dependency.

Note

Unlike fences or events, the act of waiting for a semaphore also unsignals that semaphore. If two operations are separately specified to wait for the same semaphore, and there are no other execution dependencies between those operations, behaviour is undefined. An execution dependency must be present that guarantees that the semaphore unsignal operation for the first of those waits, happens-before the semaphore is signalled again, and before the second unsignal operation. Semaphore waits and signals should thus occur in discrete 1:1 pairs.

6.4.3. Semaphore State Requirements For Wait Operations

Before waiting on a semaphore, the application must ensure the semaphore is in a valid state for a wait operation. Specifically, when a semaphore wait and unsignal operation is submitted to a queue:

The semaphore must be signaled, or have an associated semaphore signal operation that is pending execution.
There must be no other queue waiting on the same semaphore when the operation executes.

6.5. Events

Events are a synchronization primitive that can be used to insert a fine-grained dependency between commands submitted to the same queue, or between the host and a queue. Events must not be used to insert a dependency between commands submitted to different queues. Events have two states - signaled and unsignaled. An application can signal an event, or unsignal it, on either the host or the device. A device can wait for an event to become signaled before executing further operations. No command exists to wait for an event to become signaled on the host, but the current state of an event can be queried.

Events are represented by VkEvent handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkEvent)

To create an event, call:

VkResult vkCreateEvent(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkEventCreateInfo*                    pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkEvent*                                    pEvent);

device is the logical device that creates the event.
pCreateInfo is a pointer to an instance of the VkEventCreateInfo structure which contains information about how the event is to be created.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pEvent points to a handle in which the resulting event object is returned.

When created, the event object is in the unsignaled state.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkEventCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pEvent must be a valid pointer to a VkEvent handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkEventCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkEventCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType       sType;
    const void*           pNext;
    VkEventCreateFlags    flags;
} VkEventCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_EVENT_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0

typedef VkFlags VkEventCreateFlags;

VkEventCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

To destroy an event, call:

void vkDestroyEvent(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkEvent                                     event,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the event.
event is the handle of the event to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

Valid Usage

All submitted commands that refer to event must have completed execution
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when event was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when event was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If event is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, event must be a valid VkEvent handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If event is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to event must be externally synchronized

To query the state of an event from the host, call:

VkResult vkGetEventStatus(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkEvent                                     event);

device is the logical device that owns the event.
event is the handle of the event to query.

Upon success, vkGetEventStatus returns the state of the event object with the following return codes:

Table 6. Event Object Status Codes
Status	Meaning
`VK_EVENT_SET`	The event specified by `event` is signaled.
`VK_EVENT_RESET`	The event specified by `event` is unsignaled.

If a vkCmdSetEvent or vkCmdResetEvent command is in a command buffer that is in the pending state, then the value returned by this command may immediately be out of date.

The state of an event can be updated by the host. The state of the event is immediately changed, and subsequent calls to vkGetEventStatus will return the new state. If an event is already in the requested state, then updating it to the same state has no effect.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
event must be a valid VkEvent handle
event must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Return Codes

VK_EVENT_SET
VK_EVENT_RESET

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST

To set the state of an event to signaled from the host, call:

VkResult vkSetEvent(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkEvent                                     event);

device is the logical device that owns the event.
event is the event to set.

When vkSetEvent is executed on the host, it defines an event signal operation which sets the event to the signaled state.

If event is already in the signaled state when vkSetEvent is executed, then vkSetEvent has no effect, and no event signal operation occurs.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
event must be a valid VkEvent handle
event must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to event must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

To set the state of an event to unsignaled from the host, call:

VkResult vkResetEvent(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkEvent                                     event);

device is the logical device that owns the event.
event is the event to reset.

When vkResetEvent is executed on the host, it defines an event unsignal operation which resets the event to the unsignaled state.

If event is already in the unsignaled state when vkResetEvent is executed, then vkResetEvent has no effect, and no event unsignal operation occurs.

Valid Usage

event must not be waited on by a vkCmdWaitEvents command that is currently executing

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
event must be a valid VkEvent handle
event must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to event must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The state of an event can also be updated on the device by commands inserted in command buffers.

To set the state of an event to signaled from a device, call:

void vkCmdSetEvent(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    VkEvent                                     event,
    VkPipelineStageFlags                        stageMask);

commandBuffer is the command buffer into which the command is recorded.
event is the event that will be signaled.
stageMask specifies the source stage mask used to determine when the event is signaled.

When vkCmdSetEvent is submitted to a queue, it defines an execution dependency on commands that were submitted before it, and defines an event signal operation which sets the event to the signaled state.

The first synchronization scope includes all commands that occur earlier in submission order. The synchronization scope is limited to operations on the pipeline stages determined by the source stage mask specified by stageMask.

The second synchronization scope includes only the event signal operation.

If event is already in the signaled state when vkCmdSetEvent is executed on the device, then vkCmdSetEvent has no effect, no event signal operation occurs, and no execution dependency is generated.

Valid Usage

stageMask must not include VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT
If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, stageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, stageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
event must be a valid VkEvent handle
stageMask must be a valid combination of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
stageMask must not be 0
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support graphics, or compute operations
This command must only be called outside of a render pass instance
Both of commandBuffer, and event must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Command Buffer Levels	Render Pass Scope	Supported Queue Types	Pipeline Type
Primary Secondary	Outside	Graphics Compute

Primary
Secondary

Outside

Graphics
Compute

To set the state of an event to unsignaled from a device, call:

void vkCmdResetEvent(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    VkEvent                                     event,
    VkPipelineStageFlags                        stageMask);

commandBuffer is the command buffer into which the command is recorded.
event is the event that will be unsignaled.
stageMask is a bitmask of VkPipelineStageFlagBits specifying the source stage mask used to determine when the event is unsignaled.

When vkCmdResetEvent is submitted to a queue, it defines an execution dependency on commands that were submitted before it, and defines an event unsignal operation which resets the event to the unsignaled state.

The second synchronization scope includes only the event unsignal operation.

If event is already in the unsignaled state when vkCmdResetEvent is executed on the device, then vkCmdResetEvent has no effect, no event unsignal operation occurs, and no execution dependency is generated.

Valid Usage

stageMask must not include VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT
If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, stageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, stageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
When this command executes, event must not be waited on by a vkCmdWaitEvents command that is currently executing

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
event must be a valid VkEvent handle
stageMask must be a valid combination of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
stageMask must not be 0
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support graphics, or compute operations
This command must only be called outside of a render pass instance
Both of commandBuffer, and event must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Command Buffer Levels	Render Pass Scope	Supported Queue Types	Pipeline Type
Primary Secondary	Outside	Graphics Compute

Primary
Secondary

Outside

Graphics
Compute

To wait for one or more events to enter the signaled state on a device, call:

void vkCmdWaitEvents(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    uint32_t                                    eventCount,
    const VkEvent*                              pEvents,
    VkPipelineStageFlags                        srcStageMask,
    VkPipelineStageFlags                        dstStageMask,
    uint32_t                                    memoryBarrierCount,
    const VkMemoryBarrier*                      pMemoryBarriers,
    uint32_t                                    bufferMemoryBarrierCount,
    const VkBufferMemoryBarrier*                pBufferMemoryBarriers,
    uint32_t                                    imageMemoryBarrierCount,
    const VkImageMemoryBarrier*                 pImageMemoryBarriers);

commandBuffer is the command buffer into which the command is recorded.
eventCount is the length of the pEvents array.
pEvents is an array of event object handles to wait on.
srcStageMask is a bitmask of VkPipelineStageFlagBits specifying the source stage mask.
dstStageMask is a bitmask of VkPipelineStageFlagBits specifying the destination stage mask.
memoryBarrierCount is the length of the pMemoryBarriers array.
pMemoryBarriers is a pointer to an array of VkMemoryBarrier structures.
bufferMemoryBarrierCount is the length of the pBufferMemoryBarriers array.
pBufferMemoryBarriers is a pointer to an array of VkBufferMemoryBarrier structures.
imageMemoryBarrierCount is the length of the pImageMemoryBarriers array.
pImageMemoryBarriers is a pointer to an array of VkImageMemoryBarrier structures.

When vkCmdWaitEvents is submitted to a queue, it defines a memory dependency between prior event signal operations on the same queue or the host, and subsequent commands. vkCmdWaitEvents must not be used to wait on event signal operations occuring on other queues.

The first synchronization scope only includes event signal operations that operate on members of pEvents, and the operations that happened-before the event signal operations. Event signal operations performed by vkCmdSetEvent that occur earlier in submission order are included in the first synchronization scope, if the logically latest pipeline stage in their stageMask parameter is logically earlier than or equal to the logically latest pipeline stage in srcStageMask. Event signal operations performed by vkSetEvent are only included in the first synchronization scope if VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT is included in srcStageMask.

The second synchronization scope includes all commands that occur later in submission order. The second synchronization scope is limited to operations on the pipeline stages determined by the destination stage mask specified by dstStageMask.

The first access scope is limited to access in the pipeline stages determined by the source stage mask specified by srcStageMask. Within that, the first access scope only includes the first access scopes defined by elements of the pMemoryBarriers, pBufferMemoryBarriers and pImageMemoryBarriers arrays, which each define a set of memory barriers. If no memory barriers are specified, then the first access scope includes no accesses.

The second access scope is limited to access in the pipeline stages determined by the destination stage mask specified by dstStageMask. Within that, the second access scope only includes the second access scopes defined by elements of the pMemoryBarriers, pBufferMemoryBarriers and pImageMemoryBarriers arrays, which each define a set of memory barriers. If no memory barriers are specified, then the second access scope includes no accesses.

Note

vkCmdWaitEvents is used with vkCmdSetEvent to define a memory dependency between two sets of action commands, roughly in the same way as pipeline barriers, but split into two commands such that work between the two may execute unhindered.

Note

Applications should be careful to avoid race conditions when using events. There is no direct ordering guarantee between a vkCmdResetEvent command and a vkCmdWaitEvents command submitted after it, so some other execution dependency must be included between these commands (e.g. a semaphore).

Valid Usage

srcStageMask must be the bitwise OR of the stageMask parameter used in previous calls to vkCmdSetEvent with any of the members of pEvents and VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT if any of the members of pEvents was set using vkSetEvent
If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, srcStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, dstStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, srcStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, dstStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
If pEvents includes one or more events that will be signaled by vkSetEvent after commandBuffer has been submitted to a queue, then vkCmdWaitEvents must not be called inside a render pass instance
Any pipeline stage included in srcStageMask or dstStageMask must be supported by the capabilities of the queue family specified by the queueFamilyIndex member of the VkCommandPoolCreateInfo structure that was used to create the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from, as specified in the table of supported pipeline stages.
Each element of pMemoryBarriers, pBufferMemoryBarriers or pImageMemoryBarriers must not have any access flag included in its srcAccessMask member if that bit is not supported by any of the pipeline stages in srcStageMask, as specified in the table of supported access types.
Each element of pMemoryBarriers, pBufferMemoryBarriers or pImageMemoryBarriers must not have any access flag included in its dstAccessMask member if that bit is not supported by any of the pipeline stages in dstStageMask, as specified in the table of supported access types.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
pEvents must be a valid pointer to an array of eventCount valid VkEvent handles
srcStageMask must be a valid combination of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
srcStageMask must not be 0
dstStageMask must be a valid combination of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
dstStageMask must not be 0
If memoryBarrierCount is not 0, pMemoryBarriers must be a valid pointer to an array of memoryBarrierCount valid VkMemoryBarrier structures
If bufferMemoryBarrierCount is not 0, pBufferMemoryBarriers must be a valid pointer to an array of bufferMemoryBarrierCount valid VkBufferMemoryBarrier structures
If imageMemoryBarrierCount is not 0, pImageMemoryBarriers must be a valid pointer to an array of imageMemoryBarrierCount valid VkImageMemoryBarrier structures
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support graphics, or compute operations
eventCount must be greater than 0
Both of commandBuffer, and the elements of pEvents must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Command Buffer Levels	Render Pass Scope	Supported Queue Types	Pipeline Type
Primary Secondary	Both	Graphics Compute

Primary
Secondary

Both

Graphics
Compute

6.6. Pipeline Barriers

vkCmdPipelineBarrier is a synchronization command that inserts a dependency between commands submitted to the same queue, or between commands in the same subpass.

To record a pipeline barrier, call:

void vkCmdPipelineBarrier(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    VkPipelineStageFlags                        srcStageMask,
    VkPipelineStageFlags                        dstStageMask,
    VkDependencyFlags                           dependencyFlags,
    uint32_t                                    memoryBarrierCount,
    const VkMemoryBarrier*                      pMemoryBarriers,
    uint32_t                                    bufferMemoryBarrierCount,
    const VkBufferMemoryBarrier*                pBufferMemoryBarriers,
    uint32_t                                    imageMemoryBarrierCount,
    const VkImageMemoryBarrier*                 pImageMemoryBarriers);

commandBuffer is the command buffer into which the command is recorded.
srcStageMask is a bitmask of VkPipelineStageFlagBits specifying the source stage mask.
dstStageMask is a bitmask of VkPipelineStageFlagBits specifying the destination stage mask.
dependencyFlags is a bitmask of VkDependencyFlagBits specifying how execution and memory dependencies are formed.
memoryBarrierCount is the length of the pMemoryBarriers array.
pMemoryBarriers is a pointer to an array of VkMemoryBarrier structures.
bufferMemoryBarrierCount is the length of the pBufferMemoryBarriers array.
pBufferMemoryBarriers is a pointer to an array of VkBufferMemoryBarrier structures.
imageMemoryBarrierCount is the length of the pImageMemoryBarriers array.
pImageMemoryBarriers is a pointer to an array of VkImageMemoryBarrier structures.

When vkCmdPipelineBarrier is submitted to a queue, it defines a memory dependency between commands that were submitted before it, and those submitted after it.

If vkCmdPipelineBarrier was recorded outside a render pass instance, the first synchronization scope includes all commands that occur earlier in submission order. If vkCmdPipelineBarrier was recorded inside a render pass instance, the first synchronization scope includes only commands that occur earlier in submission order within the same subpass. In either case, the first synchronization scope is limited to operations on the pipeline stages determined by the source stage mask specified by srcStageMask.

If vkCmdPipelineBarrier was recorded outside a render pass instance, the second synchronization scope includes all commands that occur later in submission order. If vkCmdPipelineBarrier was recorded inside a render pass instance, the second synchronization scope includes only commands that occur later in submission order within the same subpass. In either case, the second synchronization scope is limited to operations on the pipeline stages determined by the destination stage mask specified by dstStageMask.

If dependencyFlags includes VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT, then any dependency between framebuffer-space pipeline stages is framebuffer-local - otherwise it is framebuffer-global.

Valid Usage

If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, srcStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, dstStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, srcStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, dstStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, the render pass must have been created with a VkSubpassDependency instance in pDependencies that expresses a dependency from the current subpass to itself.
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, srcStageMask must contain a subset of the bit values in the srcStageMask member of that instance of VkSubpassDependency
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, dstStageMask must contain a subset of the bit values in the dstStageMask member of that instance of VkSubpassDependency
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, the srcAccessMask of any element of pMemoryBarriers or pImageMemoryBarriers must contain a subset of the bit values the srcAccessMask member of that instance of VkSubpassDependency
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, the dstAccessMask of any element of pMemoryBarriers or pImageMemoryBarriers must contain a subset of the bit values the dstAccessMask member of that instance of VkSubpassDependency
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, dependencyFlags must be equal to the dependencyFlags member of that instance of VkSubpassDependency
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, bufferMemoryBarrierCount must be 0
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, the image member of any element of pImageMemoryBarriers must be equal to one of the elements of pAttachments that the current framebuffer was created with, that is also referred to by one of the elements of the pColorAttachments, pResolveAttachments or pDepthStencilAttachment members of the VkSubpassDescription instance that the current subpass was created with
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, the oldLayout and newLayout members of any element of pImageMemoryBarriers must be equal to the layout member of an element of the pColorAttachments, pResolveAttachments or pDepthStencilAttachment members of the VkSubpassDescription instance that the current subpass was created with, that refers to the same image
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, the oldLayout and newLayout members of an element of pImageMemoryBarriers must be equal
If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called within a render pass instance, the srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex members of any element of pImageMemoryBarriers must be VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED
Any pipeline stage included in srcStageMask or dstStageMask must be supported by the capabilities of the queue family specified by the queueFamilyIndex member of the VkCommandPoolCreateInfo structure that was used to create the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from, as specified in the table of supported pipeline stages.
Each element of pMemoryBarriers, pBufferMemoryBarriers and pImageMemoryBarriers must not have any access flag included in its srcAccessMask member if that bit is not supported by any of the pipeline stages in srcStageMask, as specified in the table of supported access types.
Each element of pMemoryBarriers, pBufferMemoryBarriers and pImageMemoryBarriers must not have any access flag included in its dstAccessMask member if that bit is not supported by any of the pipeline stages in dstStageMask, as specified in the table of supported access types.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
srcStageMask must be a valid combination of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
srcStageMask must not be 0
dstStageMask must be a valid combination of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
dstStageMask must not be 0
dependencyFlags must be a valid combination of VkDependencyFlagBits values
If memoryBarrierCount is not 0, pMemoryBarriers must be a valid pointer to an array of memoryBarrierCount valid VkMemoryBarrier structures
If bufferMemoryBarrierCount is not 0, pBufferMemoryBarriers must be a valid pointer to an array of bufferMemoryBarrierCount valid VkBufferMemoryBarrier structures
If imageMemoryBarrierCount is not 0, pImageMemoryBarriers must be a valid pointer to an array of imageMemoryBarrierCount valid VkImageMemoryBarrier structures
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support transfer, graphics, or compute operations

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Primary
Secondary

Both

Transfer
Graphics
Compute

Bits which can be set in vkCmdPipelineBarrier::dependencyFlags, specifying how execution and memory dependencies are formed, are:

typedef enum VkDependencyFlagBits {
    VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT = 0x00000001,
} VkDependencyFlagBits;

VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT specifies that dependencies will be framebuffer-local.

typedef VkFlags VkDependencyFlags;

VkDependencyFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkDependencyFlagBits.

6.6.1. Subpass Self-dependency

If vkCmdPipelineBarrier is called inside a render pass instance, the following restrictions apply. For a given subpass to allow a pipeline barrier, the render pass must declare a self-dependency from that subpass to itself. That is, there must exist a VkSubpassDependency in the subpass dependency list for the render pass with srcSubpass and dstSubpass equal to that subpass index. More than one self-dependency can be declared for each subpass. Self-dependencies must only include pipeline stage bits that are graphics stages. Self-dependencies must not have any earlier pipeline stages depend on any later pipeline stages (according to the order of graphics pipeline stages), unless all of the stages are framebuffer-space stages. If the source and destination stage masks both include framebuffer-space stages, then dependencyFlags must include VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT.

A vkCmdPipelineBarrier command inside a render pass instance must be a subset of one of the self-dependencies of the subpass it is used in, meaning that the stage masks and access masks must each include only a subset of the bits of the corresponding mask in that self-dependency. If the self-dependency has VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT set, then so must the pipeline barrier. Pipeline barriers within a render pass instance can only be types VkMemoryBarrier or VkImageMemoryBarrier. If a VkImageMemoryBarrier is used, the image and image subresource range specified in the barrier must be a subset of one of the image views used by the framebuffer in the current subpass. Additionally, oldLayout must be equal to newLayout, and both the srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex must be VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED.

6.7. Memory Barriers

Memory barriers are used to explicitly control access to buffer and image subresource ranges. Memory barriers are used to transfer ownership between queue families, change image layouts, and define availability and visibility operations. They explicitly define the access types and buffer and image subresource ranges that are included in the access scopes of a memory dependency that is created by a synchronization command that includes them.

6.7.1. Global Memory Barriers

Global memory barriers apply to memory accesses involving all memory objects that exist at the time of its execution.

The VkMemoryBarrier structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkMemoryBarrier {
    VkStructureType    sType;
    const void*        pNext;
    VkAccessFlags      srcAccessMask;
    VkAccessFlags      dstAccessMask;
} VkMemoryBarrier;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
srcAccessMask is a bitmask of VkAccessFlagBits specifying a source access mask.
dstAccessMask is a bitmask of VkAccessFlagBits specifying a destination access mask.

The first access scope is limited to access types in the source access mask specified by srcAccessMask.

The second access scope is limited to access types in the destination access mask specified by dstAccessMask.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_MEMORY_BARRIER
pNext must be NULL
srcAccessMask must be a valid combination of VkAccessFlagBits values
dstAccessMask must be a valid combination of VkAccessFlagBits values

6.7.2. Buffer Memory Barriers

Buffer memory barriers only apply to memory accesses involving a specific buffer range. That is, a memory dependency formed from an buffer memory barrier is scoped to access via the specified buffer range. Buffer memory barriers can also be used to define a queue family ownership transfer for the specified buffer range.

The VkBufferMemoryBarrier structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkBufferMemoryBarrier {
    VkStructureType    sType;
    const void*        pNext;
    VkAccessFlags      srcAccessMask;
    VkAccessFlags      dstAccessMask;
    uint32_t           srcQueueFamilyIndex;
    uint32_t           dstQueueFamilyIndex;
    VkBuffer           buffer;
    VkDeviceSize       offset;
    VkDeviceSize       size;
} VkBufferMemoryBarrier;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
srcAccessMask is a bitmask of VkAccessFlagBits specifying a source access mask.
dstAccessMask is a bitmask of VkAccessFlagBits specifying a destination access mask.
srcQueueFamilyIndex is the source queue family for a queue family ownership transfer.
dstQueueFamilyIndex is the destination queue family for a queue family ownership transfer.
buffer is a handle to the buffer whose backing memory is affected by the barrier.
offset is an offset in bytes into the backing memory for buffer; this is relative to the base offset as bound to the buffer (see vkBindBufferMemory).
size is a size in bytes of the affected area of backing memory for buffer, or VK_WHOLE_SIZE to use the range from offset to the end of the buffer.

The first access scope is limited to access to memory through the specified buffer range, via access types in the source access mask specified by srcAccessMask. If srcAccessMask includes VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT, memory writes performed by that access type are also made visible, as that access type is not performed through a resource.

The second access scope is limited to access to memory through the specified buffer range, via access types in the destination access mask. specified by dstAccessMask. If dstAccessMask includes VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT or VK_ACCESS_HOST_READ_BIT, available memory writes are also made visible to accesses of those types, as those access types are not performed through a resource.

If srcQueueFamilyIndex is not equal to dstQueueFamilyIndex, and srcQueueFamilyIndex is equal to the current queue family, then the memory barrier defines a queue family release operation for the specified buffer range, and the second access scope includes no access, as if dstAccessMask was 0.

If dstQueueFamilyIndex is not equal to srcQueueFamilyIndex, and dstQueueFamilyIndex is equal to the current queue family, then the memory barrier defines a queue family acquire operation for the specified buffer range, and the first access scope includes no access, as if srcAccessMask was 0.

Valid Usage

offset must be less than the size of buffer
If size is not equal to VK_WHOLE_SIZE, size must be greater than 0
If size is not equal to VK_WHOLE_SIZE, size must be less than or equal to than the size of buffer minus offset
If buffer was created with a sharing mode of VK_SHARING_MODE_CONCURRENT, srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex must both be VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED
If buffer was created with a sharing mode of VK_SHARING_MODE_EXCLUSIVE, srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex must either both be VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED, or both be a valid queue family (see Queue Family Properties)
If buffer was created with a sharing mode of VK_SHARING_MODE_EXCLUSIVE, and srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex are not VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED, at least one of them must be the same as the family of the queue that will execute this barrier
If buffer is non-sparse then it must be bound completely and contiguously to a single VkDeviceMemory object

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_BUFFER_MEMORY_BARRIER
pNext must be NULL
srcAccessMask must be a valid combination of VkAccessFlagBits values
dstAccessMask must be a valid combination of VkAccessFlagBits values
buffer must be a valid VkBuffer handle

6.7.3. Image Memory Barriers

Image memory barriers only apply to memory accesses involving a specific image subresource range. That is, a memory dependency formed from an image memory barrier is scoped to access via the specified image subresource range. Image memory barriers can also be used to define image layout transitions or a queue family ownership transfer for the specified image subresource range.

The VkImageMemoryBarrier structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkImageMemoryBarrier {
    VkStructureType            sType;
    const void*                pNext;
    VkAccessFlags              srcAccessMask;
    VkAccessFlags              dstAccessMask;
    VkImageLayout              oldLayout;
    VkImageLayout              newLayout;
    uint32_t                   srcQueueFamilyIndex;
    uint32_t                   dstQueueFamilyIndex;
    VkImage                    image;
    VkImageSubresourceRange    subresourceRange;
} VkImageMemoryBarrier;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
srcAccessMask is a bitmask of VkAccessFlagBits specifying a source access mask.
dstAccessMask is a bitmask of VkAccessFlagBits specifying a destination access mask.
oldLayout is the old layout in an image layout transition.
newLayout is the new layout in an image layout transition.
srcQueueFamilyIndex is the source queue family for a queue family ownership transfer.
dstQueueFamilyIndex is the destination queue family for a queue family ownership transfer.
image is a handle to the image affected by this barrier.
subresourceRange describes the image subresource range within image that is affected by this barrier.

The first access scope is limited to access to memory through the specified image subresource range, via access types in the source access mask specified by srcAccessMask. If srcAccessMask includes VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT, memory writes performed by that access type are also made visible, as that access type is not performed through a resource.

The second access scope is limited to access to memory through the specified image subresource range, via access types in the destination access mask specified by dstAccessMask. If dstAccessMask includes VK_ACCESS_HOST_WRITE_BIT or VK_ACCESS_HOST_READ_BIT, available memory writes are also made visible to accesses of those types, as those access types are not performed through a resource.

If srcQueueFamilyIndex is not equal to dstQueueFamilyIndex, and srcQueueFamilyIndex is equal to the current queue family, then the memory barrier defines a queue family release operation for the specified image subresource range, and the second access scope includes no access, as if dstAccessMask was 0.

If dstQueueFamilyIndex is not equal to srcQueueFamilyIndex, and dstQueueFamilyIndex is equal to the current queue family, then the memory barrier defines a queue family acquire operation for the specified image subresource range, and the first access scope includes no access, as if srcAccessMask was 0.

If oldLayout is not equal to newLayout, then the memory barrier defines an image layout transition for the specified image subresource range.

Layout transitions that are performed via image memory barriers execute in their entirety in submission order, relative to other image layout transitions submitted to the same queue, including those performed by render passes. In effect there is an implicit execution dependency from each such layout transition to all layout transitions previously submitted to the same queue.

Valid Usage

oldLayout must be VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED or the current layout of the image subresources affected by the barrier
newLayout must not be VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED or VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_PREINITIALIZED
If image was created with a sharing mode of VK_SHARING_MODE_CONCURRENT, srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex must both be VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED
If image was created with a sharing mode of VK_SHARING_MODE_EXCLUSIVE, srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex must either both be VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED, or both be a valid queue family (see Queue Family Properties).
If image was created with a sharing mode of VK_SHARING_MODE_EXCLUSIVE, and srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex are not VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED, at least one of them must be the same as the family of the queue that will execute this barrier
subresourceRange.baseMipLevel must be less than the mipLevels specified in VkImageCreateInfo when image was created
If subresourceRange.levelCount is not VK_REMAINING_MIP_LEVELS, subresourceRange.baseMipLevel + subresourceRange.levelCount must be less than or equal to the mipLevels specified in VkImageCreateInfo when image was created
subresourceRange.baseArrayLayer must be less than the arrayLayers specified in VkImageCreateInfo when image was created
If subresourceRange.layerCount is not VK_REMAINING_ARRAY_LAYERS, subresourceRange.baseArrayLayer + subresourceRange.layerCount must be less than or equal to the arrayLayers specified in VkImageCreateInfo when image was created
If image has a depth/stencil format with both depth and stencil components, then the aspectMask member of subresourceRange must include both VK_IMAGE_ASPECT_DEPTH_BIT and VK_IMAGE_ASPECT_STENCIL_BIT
If either oldLayout or newLayout is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OPTIMAL then image must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_BIT set
If either oldLayout or newLayout is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_OPTIMAL then image must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_BIT set
If either oldLayout or newLayout is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL then image must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_BIT set
If either oldLayout or newLayout is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_SHADER_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL then image must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_SAMPLED_BIT or VK_IMAGE_USAGE_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_BIT set
If either oldLayout or newLayout is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_TRANSFER_SRC_OPTIMAL then image must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_TRANSFER_SRC_BIT set
If either oldLayout or newLayout is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_TRANSFER_DST_OPTIMAL then image must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_TRANSFER_DST_BIT set
If image is non-sparse then it must be bound completely and contiguously to a single VkDeviceMemory object

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_IMAGE_MEMORY_BARRIER
pNext must be NULL
srcAccessMask must be a valid combination of VkAccessFlagBits values
dstAccessMask must be a valid combination of VkAccessFlagBits values
oldLayout must be a valid VkImageLayout value
newLayout must be a valid VkImageLayout value
image must be a valid VkImage handle
subresourceRange must be a valid VkImageSubresourceRange structure

6.7.4. Queue Family Ownership Transfer

Resources created with a VkSharingMode of VK_SHARING_MODE_EXCLUSIVE must have their ownership explicitly transferred from one queue family to another in order to access their content in a well-defined manner on a queue in a different queue family. If memory dependencies are correctly expressed between uses of such a resource between two queues in different families, but no ownership transfer is defined, the contents of that resource are undefined for any read accesses performed by the second queue family.

Note

If an application does not need the contents of a resource to remain valid when transferring from one queue family to another, then the ownership transfer should be skipped.

A queue family ownership transfer consists of two distinct parts:

Release exclusive ownership from the source queue family
Acquire exclusive ownership for the destination queue family

An application must ensure that these operations occur in the correct order by defining an execution dependency between them, e.g. using a semaphore.

A release operation is used to release exclusive ownership of a range of a buffer or image subresource range. A release operation is defined by executing a buffer memory barrier (for a buffer range) or an image memory barrier (for an image subresource range), on a queue from the source queue family. The srcQueueFamilyIndex parameter of the barrier must be set to the source queue family index, and the dstQueueFamilyIndex parameter to the destination queue family index. dstStageMask is ignored for such a barrier, such that no visibility operation is executed - the value of this mask does not affect the validity of the barrier. The release operation happens-after the availability operation.

An acquire operation is used to acquire exclusive ownership of a range of a buffer or image subresource range. An acquire operation is defined by executing a buffer memory barrier (for a buffer range) or an image memory barrier (for an image subresource range), on a queue from the destination queue family. The srcQueueFamilyIndex parameter of the barrier must be set to the source queue family index, and the dstQueueFamilyIndex parameter to the destination queue family index. srcStageMask is ignored for such a barrier, such that no availability operation is executed - the value of this mask does not affect the validity of the barrier. The acquire operation happens-before the visibility operation.

Note

Whilst it is not invalid to provide destination or source access masks for memory barriers used for release or acquire operations, respectively, they have no practical effect. Access after a release operation has undefined results, and so visibility for those accesses has no practical effect. Similarly, write access before an acquire operation will produce undefined results for future access, so availability of those writes has no practical use. In an earlier version of the specification, these were required to match on both sides - but this was subsequently relaxed. These masks should be set to 0.

If the transfer is via an image memory barrier, and an image layout transition is desired, then the values of oldLayout and newLayout in the release memory barrier must be equal to values of oldLayout and newLayout in the acquire memory barrier. Although the image layout transition is submitted twice, it will only be executed once. A layout transition specified in this way happens-after the release operation and happens-before the acquire operation.

If the values of srcQueueFamilyIndex and dstQueueFamilyIndex are equal, no ownership transfer is performed, and the barrier operates as if they were both set to VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED.

Queue family ownership transfers may perform read and write accesses on all memory bound to the image subresource or buffer range, so applications must ensure that all memory writes have been made available before a queue family ownership transfer is executed. Available memory is automatically made visible to queue family release and acquire operations, and writes performed by those operations are automatically made available.

Once a queue family has acquired ownership of a buffer range or image subresource range of an VK_SHARING_MODE_EXCLUSIVE resource, its contents are undefined to other queue families unless ownership is transferred. The contents of any portion of another resource which aliases memory that is bound to the transferred buffer or image subresource range are undefined after a release or acquire operation.

6.8. Wait Idle Operations

To wait on the host for the completion of outstanding queue operations for a given queue, call:

VkResult vkQueueWaitIdle(
    VkQueue                                     queue);

queue is the queue on which to wait.

vkQueueWaitIdle is equivalent to submitting a fence to a queue and waiting with an infinite timeout for that fence to signal.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

queue must be a valid VkQueue handle

Command Properties

Any

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST

To wait on the host for the completion of outstanding queue operations for all queues on a given logical device, call:

VkResult vkDeviceWaitIdle(
    VkDevice                                    device);

device is the logical device to idle.

vkDeviceWaitIdle is equivalent to calling vkQueueWaitIdle for all queues owned by device.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle

Host Synchronization

Host access to all VkQueue objects created from device must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST

6.9. Host Write Ordering Guarantees

When batches of command buffers are submitted to a queue via vkQueueSubmit, it defines a memory dependency with prior host operations, and execution of command buffers submitted to the queue.

The first synchronization scope is defined by the host execution model, but includes execution of vkQueueSubmit on the host and anything that happened-before it.

The second synchronization scope includes all commands submitted in the same queue submission, and all commands that occur later in submission order.

The first access scope includes all host writes to mappable device memory that are either coherent, or have been flushed with vkFlushMappedMemoryRanges.

The second access scope includes all memory access performed by the device.

7. Render Pass

A render pass represents a collection of attachments, subpasses, and dependencies between the subpasses, and describes how the attachments are used over the course of the subpasses. The use of a render pass in a command buffer is a render pass instance.

Render passes are represented by VkRenderPass handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkRenderPass)

An attachment description describes the properties of an attachment including its format, sample count, and how its contents are treated at the beginning and end of each render pass instance.

A subpass represents a phase of rendering that reads and writes a subset of the attachments in a render pass. Rendering commands are recorded into a particular subpass of a render pass instance.

A subpass description describes the subset of attachments that is involved in the execution of a subpass. Each subpass can read from some attachments as input attachments, write to some as color attachments or depth/stencil attachments, and perform multisample resolve operations to resolve attachments. A subpass description can also include a set of preserve attachments, which are attachments that are not read or written by the subpass but whose contents must be preserved throughout the subpass.

A subpass uses an attachment if the attachment is a color, depth/stencil, resolve, or input attachment for that subpass (as determined by the pColorAttachments, pDepthStencilAttachment, pResolveAttachments, and pInputAttachments members of VkSubpassDescription, respectively). A subpass does not use an attachment if that attachment is preserved by the subpass. The first use of an attachment is in the lowest numbered subpass that uses that attachment. Similarly, the last use of an attachment is in the highest numbered subpass that uses that attachment.

The subpasses in a render pass all render to the same dimensions, and fragments for pixel (x,y,layer) in one subpass can only read attachment contents written by previous subpasses at that same (x,y,layer) location.

Note

By describing a complete set of subpasses in advance, render passes provide the implementation an opportunity to optimize the storage and transfer of attachment data between subpasses.

In practice, this means that subpasses with a simple framebuffer-space dependency may be merged into a single tiled rendering pass, keeping the attachment data on-chip for the duration of a render pass instance. However, it is also quite common for a render pass to only contain a single subpass.

Subpass dependencies describe execution and memory dependencies between subpasses.

A subpass dependency chain is a sequence of subpass dependencies in a render pass, where the source subpass of each subpass dependency (after the first) equals the destination subpass of the previous dependency.

Execution of subpasses may overlap or execute out of order with regards to other subpasses, unless otherwise enforced by an execution dependency. Each subpass only respects submission order for commands recorded in the same subpass, and the vkCmdBeginRenderPass and vkCmdEndRenderPass commands that delimit the render pass - commands within other subpasses are not included. This affects most other implicit ordering guarantees.

A render pass describes the structure of subpasses and attachments independent of any specific image views for the attachments. The specific image views that will be used for the attachments, and their dimensions, are specified in VkFramebuffer objects. Framebuffers are created with respect to a specific render pass that the framebuffer is compatible with (see Render Pass Compatibility). Collectively, a render pass and a framebuffer define the complete render target state for one or more subpasses as well as the algorithmic dependencies between the subpasses.

The various pipeline stages of the drawing commands for a given subpass may execute concurrently and/or out of order, both within and across drawing commands, whilst still respecting pipeline order. However for a given (x,y,layer,sample) sample location, certain per-sample operations are performed in rasterization order.

7.1. Render Pass Creation

To create a render pass, call:

VkResult vkCreateRenderPass(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkRenderPassCreateInfo*               pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkRenderPass*                               pRenderPass);

device is the logical device that creates the render pass.
pCreateInfo is a pointer to an instance of the VkRenderPassCreateInfo structure that describes the parameters of the render pass.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pRenderPass points to a VkRenderPass handle in which the resulting render pass object is returned.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkRenderPassCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pRenderPass must be a valid pointer to a VkRenderPass handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkRenderPassCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkRenderPassCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType                   sType;
    const void*                       pNext;
    VkRenderPassCreateFlags           flags;
    uint32_t                          attachmentCount;
    const VkAttachmentDescription*    pAttachments;
    uint32_t                          subpassCount;
    const VkSubpassDescription*       pSubpasses;
    uint32_t                          dependencyCount;
    const VkSubpassDependency*        pDependencies;
} VkRenderPassCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
attachmentCount is the number of attachments used by this render pass, or zero indicating no attachments. Attachments are referred to by zero-based indices in the range [0,attachmentCount).
pAttachments points to an array of attachmentCount number of VkAttachmentDescription structures describing properties of the attachments, or NULL if attachmentCount is zero.
subpassCount is the number of subpasses to create for this render pass. Subpasses are referred to by zero-based indices in the range [0,subpassCount). A render pass must have at least one subpass.
pSubpasses points to an array of subpassCount number of VkSubpassDescription structures describing properties of the subpasses.
dependencyCount is the number of dependencies between pairs of subpasses, or zero indicating no dependencies.
pDependencies points to an array of dependencyCount number of VkSubpassDependency structures describing dependencies between pairs of subpasses, or NULL if dependencyCount is zero.

Valid Usage

If any two subpasses operate on attachments with overlapping ranges of the same VkDeviceMemory object, and at least one subpass writes to that area of VkDeviceMemory, a subpass dependency must be included (either directly or via some intermediate subpasses) between them
If the attachment member of any element of pInputAttachments, pColorAttachments, pResolveAttachments or pDepthStencilAttachment, or the attachment indexed by any element of pPreserveAttachments in any element of pSubpasses is bound to a range of a VkDeviceMemory object that overlaps with any other attachment in any subpass (including the same subpass), the VkAttachmentDescription structures describing them must include VK_ATTACHMENT_DESCRIPTION_MAY_ALIAS_BIT in flags
If the attachment member of any element of pInputAttachments, pColorAttachments, pResolveAttachments or pDepthStencilAttachment, or any element of pPreserveAttachments in any element of pSubpasses is not VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED, it must be less than attachmentCount
The value of each element of the pPreserveAttachments member in each element of pSubpasses must not be VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED
For any member of pAttachments with a loadOp equal to VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_CLEAR, the first use of that attachment must not specify a layout equal to VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_SHADER_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL or VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL.
For any element of pDependencies, if the srcSubpass is not VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, all stage flags included in the srcStageMask member of that dependency must be a pipeline stage supported by the pipeline identified by the pipelineBindPoint member of the source subpass.
For any element of pDependencies, if the dstSubpass is not VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, all stage flags included in the dstStageMask member of that dependency must be a pipeline stage supported by the pipeline identified by the pipelineBindPoint member of the source subpass.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_RENDER_PASS_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0
If attachmentCount is not 0, pAttachments must be a valid pointer to an array of attachmentCount valid VkAttachmentDescription structures
pSubpasses must be a valid pointer to an array of subpassCount valid VkSubpassDescription structures
If dependencyCount is not 0, pDependencies must be a valid pointer to an array of dependencyCount valid VkSubpassDependency structures
subpassCount must be greater than 0

typedef VkFlags VkRenderPassCreateFlags;

VkRenderPassCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

The VkAttachmentDescription structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkAttachmentDescription {
    VkAttachmentDescriptionFlags    flags;
    VkFormat                        format;
    VkSampleCountFlagBits           samples;
    VkAttachmentLoadOp              loadOp;
    VkAttachmentStoreOp             storeOp;
    VkAttachmentLoadOp              stencilLoadOp;
    VkAttachmentStoreOp             stencilStoreOp;
    VkImageLayout                   initialLayout;
    VkImageLayout                   finalLayout;
} VkAttachmentDescription;

flags is a bitmask of VkAttachmentDescriptionFlagBits specifying additional properties of the attachment.
format is a VkFormat value specifying the format of the image view that will be used for the attachment.
samples is the number of samples of the image as defined in VkSampleCountFlagBits.
loadOp is a VkAttachmentLoadOp value specifying how the contents of color and depth components of the attachment are treated at the beginning of the subpass where it is first used.
storeOp is a VkAttachmentStoreOp value specifying how the contents of color and depth components of the attachment are treated at the end of the subpass where it is last used.
stencilLoadOp is a VkAttachmentLoadOp value specifying how the contents of stencil components of the attachment are treated at the beginning of the subpass where it is first used.
stencilStoreOp is a VkAttachmentStoreOp value specifying how the contents of stencil components of the attachment are treated at the end of the last subpass where it is used.
initialLayout is the layout the attachment image subresource will be in when a render pass instance begins.
finalLayout is the layout the attachment image subresource will be transitioned to when a render pass instance ends. During a render pass instance, an attachment can use a different layout in each subpass, if desired.

If the attachment uses a color format, then loadOp and storeOp are used, and stencilLoadOp and stencilStoreOp are ignored. If the format has depth and/or stencil components, loadOp and storeOp apply only to the depth data, while stencilLoadOp and stencilStoreOp define how the stencil data is handled. loadOp and stencilLoadOp define the load operations that execute as part of the first subpass that uses the attachment. storeOp and stencilStoreOp define the store operations that execute as part of the last subpass that uses the attachment.

The load operation for each sample in an attachment happens-before any recorded command which accesses the sample in the first subpass where the attachment is used. Load operations for attachments with a depth/stencil format execute in the VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT pipeline stage. Load operations for attachments with a color format execute in the VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT pipeline stage.

The store operation for each sample in an attachment happens-after any recorded command which accesses the sample in the last subpass where the attachment is used. Store operations for attachments with a depth/stencil format execute in the VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT pipeline stage. Store operations for attachments with a color format execute in the VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT pipeline stage.

If an attachment is not used by any subpass, then loadOp, storeOp, stencilStoreOp, and stencilLoadOp are ignored, and the attachment’s memory contents will not be modified by execution of a render pass instance.

During a render pass instance, input/color attachments with color formats that have a component size of 8, 16, or 32 bits must be represented in the attachment’s format throughout the instance. Attachments with other floating- or fixed-point color formats, or with depth components may be represented in a format with a precision higher than the attachment format, but must be represented with the same range. When such a component is loaded via the loadOp, it will be converted into an implementation-dependent format used by the render pass. Such components must be converted from the render pass format, to the format of the attachment, before they are resolved or stored at the end of a render pass instance via storeOp. Conversions occur as described in Numeric Representation and Computation and Fixed-Point Data Conversions.

If flags includes VK_ATTACHMENT_DESCRIPTION_MAY_ALIAS_BIT, then the attachment is treated as if it shares physical memory with another attachment in the same render pass. This information limits the ability of the implementation to reorder certain operations (like layout transitions and the loadOp) such that it is not improperly reordered against other uses of the same physical memory via a different attachment. This is described in more detail below.

Valid Usage

finalLayout must not be VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED or VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_PREINITIALIZED

Valid Usage (Implicit)

flags must be a valid combination of VkAttachmentDescriptionFlagBits values
format must be a valid VkFormat value
samples must be a valid VkSampleCountFlagBits value
loadOp must be a valid VkAttachmentLoadOp value
storeOp must be a valid VkAttachmentStoreOp value
stencilLoadOp must be a valid VkAttachmentLoadOp value
stencilStoreOp must be a valid VkAttachmentStoreOp value
initialLayout must be a valid VkImageLayout value
finalLayout must be a valid VkImageLayout value

Bits which can be set in VkAttachmentDescription::flags describing additional properties of the attachment are:

typedef enum VkAttachmentDescriptionFlagBits {
    VK_ATTACHMENT_DESCRIPTION_MAY_ALIAS_BIT = 0x00000001,
} VkAttachmentDescriptionFlagBits;

VK_ATTACHMENT_DESCRIPTION_MAY_ALIAS_BIT specifies that the attachment aliases the same device memory as other attachments.

typedef VkFlags VkAttachmentDescriptionFlags;

VkAttachmentDescriptionFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkAttachmentDescriptionFlagBits.

Possible values of VkAttachmentDescription::loadOp and stencilLoadOp, specifying how the contents of the attachment are treated, are:

typedef enum VkAttachmentLoadOp {
    VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_LOAD = 0,
    VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_CLEAR = 1,
    VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_DONT_CARE = 2,
} VkAttachmentLoadOp;

VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_LOAD specifies that the previous contents of the image within the render area will be preserved. For attachments with a depth/stencil format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT. For attachments with a color format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT.
VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_CLEAR specifies that the contents within the render area will be cleared to a uniform value, which is specified when a render pass instance is begun. For attachments with a depth/stencil format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT. For attachments with a color format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT.
VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_DONT_CARE specifies that the previous contents within the area need not be preserved; the contents of the attachment will be undefined inside the render area. For attachments with a depth/stencil format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT. For attachments with a color format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT.

Possible values of VkAttachmentDescription::storeOp and stencilStoreOp, specifying how the contents of the attachment are treated, are:

typedef enum VkAttachmentStoreOp {
    VK_ATTACHMENT_STORE_OP_STORE = 0,
    VK_ATTACHMENT_STORE_OP_DONT_CARE = 1,
} VkAttachmentStoreOp;

VK_ATTACHMENT_STORE_OP_STORE specifies the contents generated during the render pass and within the render area are written to memory. For attachments with a depth/stencil format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT. For attachments with a color format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT.
VK_ATTACHMENT_STORE_OP_DONT_CARE specifies the contents within the render area are not needed after rendering, and may be discarded; the contents of the attachment will be undefined inside the render area. For attachments with a depth/stencil format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT. For attachments with a color format, this uses the access type VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT.

If a render pass uses multiple attachments that alias the same device memory, those attachments must each include the VK_ATTACHMENT_DESCRIPTION_MAY_ALIAS_BIT bit in their attachment description flags. Attachments aliasing the same memory occurs in multiple ways:

Multiple attachments being assigned the same image view as part of framebuffer creation.
Attachments using distinct image views that correspond to the same image subresource of an image.
Attachments using views of distinct image subresources which are bound to overlapping memory ranges.

Note

Render passes must include subpass dependencies (either directly or via a subpass dependency chain) between any two subpasses that operate on the same attachment or aliasing attachments and those subpass dependencies must include execution and memory dependencies separating uses of the aliases, if at least one of those subpasses writes to one of the aliases. These dependencies must not include the VK_DEPENDENCY_BY_REGION_BIT if the aliases are views of distinct image subresources which overlap in memory.

Multiple attachments that alias the same memory must not be used in a single subpass. A given attachment index must not be used multiple times in a single subpass, with one exception: two subpass attachments can use the same attachment index if at least one use is as an input attachment and neither use is as a resolve or preserve attachment. In other words, the same view can be used simultaneously as an input and color or depth/stencil attachment, but must not be used as multiple color or depth/stencil attachments nor as resolve or preserve attachments. The precise set of valid scenarios is described in more detail below.

If a set of attachments alias each other, then all except the first to be used in the render pass must use an initialLayout of VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED, since the earlier uses of the other aliases make their contents undefined. Once an alias has been used and a different alias has been used after it, the first alias must not be used in any later subpasses. However, an application can assign the same image view to multiple aliasing attachment indices, which allows that image view to be used multiple times even if other aliases are used in between.

Note

Once an attachment needs the VK_ATTACHMENT_DESCRIPTION_MAY_ALIAS_BIT bit, there should be no additional cost of introducing additional aliases, and using these additional aliases may allow more efficient clearing of the attachments on multiple uses via VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_CLEAR.

The VkSubpassDescription structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkSubpassDescription {
    VkSubpassDescriptionFlags       flags;
    VkPipelineBindPoint             pipelineBindPoint;
    uint32_t                        inputAttachmentCount;
    const VkAttachmentReference*    pInputAttachments;
    uint32_t                        colorAttachmentCount;
    const VkAttachmentReference*    pColorAttachments;
    const VkAttachmentReference*    pResolveAttachments;
    const VkAttachmentReference*    pDepthStencilAttachment;
    uint32_t                        preserveAttachmentCount;
    const uint32_t*                 pPreserveAttachments;
} VkSubpassDescription;

flags is a bitmask of VkSubpassDescriptionFlagBits specifying usage of the subpass.
pipelineBindPoint is a VkPipelineBindPoint value specifying whether this is a compute or graphics subpass. Currently, only graphics subpasses are supported.
inputAttachmentCount is the number of input attachments.
pInputAttachments is an array of VkAttachmentReference structures (defined below) that lists which of the render pass’s attachments can be read in the fragment shader stage during the subpass, and what layout each attachment will be in during the subpass. Each element of the array corresponds to an input attachment unit number in the shader, i.e. if the shader declares an input variable layout(input_attachment_index=X, set=Y, binding=Z) then it uses the attachment provided in pInputAttachments[X]. Input attachments must also be bound to the pipeline with a descriptor set, with the input attachment descriptor written in the location (set=Y, binding=Z). Fragment shaders can use subpass input variables to access the contents of an input attachment at the fragment’s (x, y, layer) framebuffer coordinates.
colorAttachmentCount is the number of color attachments.
pColorAttachments is an array of colorAttachmentCount VkAttachmentReference structures that lists which of the render pass’s attachments will be used as color attachments in the subpass, and what layout each attachment will be in during the subpass. Each element of the array corresponds to a fragment shader output location, i.e. if the shader declared an output variable layout(location=X) then it uses the attachment provided in pColorAttachments[X].
pResolveAttachments is NULL or an array of colorAttachmentCount VkAttachmentReference structures that lists which of the render pass’s attachments are resolved to at the end of the subpass, and what layout each attachment will be in during the multisample resolve operation. If pResolveAttachments is not NULL, each of its elements corresponds to a color attachment (the element in pColorAttachments at the same index), and a multisample resolve operation is defined for each attachment. At the end of each subpass, multisample resolve operations read the subpass’s color attachments, and resolve the samples for each pixel to the same pixel location in the corresponding resolve attachments, unless the resolve attachment index is VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED. If the first use of an attachment in a render pass is as a resolve attachment, then the loadOp is effectively ignored as the resolve is guaranteed to overwrite all pixels in the render area.
pDepthStencilAttachment is a pointer to a VkAttachmentReference specifying which attachment will be used for depth/stencil data and the layout it will be in during the subpass. Setting the attachment index to VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED or leaving this pointer as NULL indicates that no depth/stencil attachment will be used in the subpass.
preserveAttachmentCount is the number of preserved attachments.
pPreserveAttachments is an array of preserveAttachmentCount render pass attachment indices describing the attachments that are not used by a subpass, but whose contents must be preserved throughout the subpass.

The contents of an attachment within the render area become undefined at the start of a subpass S if all of the following conditions are true:

The attachment is used as a color, depth/stencil, or resolve attachment in any subpass in the render pass.
There is a subpass S₁ that uses or preserves the attachment, and a subpass dependency from S₁ to S.
The attachment is not used or preserved in subpass S.

Once the contents of an attachment become undefined in subpass S, they remain undefined for subpasses in subpass dependency chains starting with subpass S until they are written again. However, they remain valid for subpasses in other subpass dependency chains starting with subpass S₁ if those subpasses use or preserve the attachment.

Valid Usage

pipelineBindPoint must be VK_PIPELINE_BIND_POINT_GRAPHICS
colorAttachmentCount must be less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxColorAttachments
If the first use of an attachment in this render pass is as an input attachment, and the attachment is not also used as a color or depth/stencil attachment in the same subpass, then loadOp must not be VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_CLEAR
If pResolveAttachments is not NULL, for each resolve attachment that does not have the value VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED, the corresponding color attachment must not have the value VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED
If pResolveAttachments is not NULL, the sample count of each element of pColorAttachments must be anything other than VK_SAMPLE_COUNT_1_BIT
Each element of pResolveAttachments must have a sample count of VK_SAMPLE_COUNT_1_BIT
Each element of pResolveAttachments must have the same VkFormat as its corresponding color attachment
All attachments in pColorAttachments that are not VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED must have the same sample count
If pDepthStencilAttachment is not VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED and any attachments in pColorAttachments are not VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED, they must have the same sample count
If any input attachments are VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED, then any pipelines bound during the subpass must not access those input attachments from the fragment shader
The attachment member of each element of pPreserveAttachments must not be VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED
Each element of pPreserveAttachments must not also be an element of any other member of the subpass description
If any attachment is used as both an input attachment and a color or depth/stencil attachment, then each use must use the same layout

Valid Usage (Implicit)

flags must be a valid combination of VkSubpassDescriptionFlagBits values
pipelineBindPoint must be a valid VkPipelineBindPoint value
If inputAttachmentCount is not 0, pInputAttachments must be a valid pointer to an array of inputAttachmentCount valid VkAttachmentReference structures
If colorAttachmentCount is not 0, pColorAttachments must be a valid pointer to an array of colorAttachmentCount valid VkAttachmentReference structures
If colorAttachmentCount is not 0, and pResolveAttachments is not NULL, pResolveAttachments must be a valid pointer to an array of colorAttachmentCount valid VkAttachmentReference structures
If pDepthStencilAttachment is not NULL, pDepthStencilAttachment must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAttachmentReference structure
If preserveAttachmentCount is not 0, pPreserveAttachments must be a valid pointer to an array of preserveAttachmentCount uint32_t values

Bits which can be set in VkSubpassDescription::flags, specifying usage of the subpass, are:

typedef enum VkSubpassDescriptionFlagBits {
} VkSubpassDescriptionFlagBits;

Note

All bits for this type are defined by extensions, and none of those extensions are enabled in this build of the specification.

typedef VkFlags VkSubpassDescriptionFlags;

VkSubpassDescriptionFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkSubpassDescriptionFlagBits.

The VkAttachmentReference structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkAttachmentReference {
    uint32_t         attachment;
    VkImageLayout    layout;
} VkAttachmentReference;

attachment is the index of the attachment of the render pass, and corresponds to the index of the corresponding element in the pAttachments array of the VkRenderPassCreateInfo structure. If any color or depth/stencil attachments are VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED, then no writes occur for those attachments.
layout is a VkImageLayout value specifying the layout the attachment uses during the subpass.

Valid Usage

layout must not be VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED or VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_PREINITIALIZED

Valid Usage (Implicit)

layout must be a valid VkImageLayout value

The VkSubpassDependency structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkSubpassDependency {
    uint32_t                srcSubpass;
    uint32_t                dstSubpass;
    VkPipelineStageFlags    srcStageMask;
    VkPipelineStageFlags    dstStageMask;
    VkAccessFlags           srcAccessMask;
    VkAccessFlags           dstAccessMask;
    VkDependencyFlags       dependencyFlags;
} VkSubpassDependency;

srcSubpass is the subpass index of the first subpass in the dependency, or VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL.
dstSubpass is the subpass index of the second subpass in the dependency, or VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL.
srcStageMask is a bitmask of VkPipelineStageFlagBits specifying the source stage mask.
dstStageMask is a bitmask of VkPipelineStageFlagBits specifying the destination stage mask
srcAccessMask is a bitmask of VkAccessFlagBits specifying a source access mask.
dstAccessMask is a bitmask of VkAccessFlagBits specifying a destination access mask.
dependencyFlags is a bitmask of VkDependencyFlagBits.

If srcSubpass is equal to dstSubpass then the VkSubpassDependency describes a subpass self-dependency, and only constrains the pipeline barriers allowed within a subpass instance. Otherwise, when a render pass instance which includes a subpass dependency is submitted to a queue, it defines a memory dependency between the subpasses identified by srcSubpass and dstSubpass.

If srcSubpass is equal to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, the first synchronization scope includes commands that occur earlier in submission order than the vkCmdBeginRenderPass used to begin the render pass instance. Otherwise, the first set of commands includes all commands submitted as part of the subpass instance identified by srcSubpass and any load, store or multisample resolve operations on attachments used in srcSubpass. In either case, the first synchronization scope is limited to operations on the pipeline stages determined by the source stage mask specified by srcStageMask.

If dstSubpass is equal to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, the second synchronization scope includes commands that occur later in submission order than the vkCmdEndRenderPass used to end the render pass instance. Otherwise, the second set of commands includes all commands submitted as part of the subpass instance identified by dstSubpass and any load, store or multisample resolve operations on attachments used in dstSubpass. In either case, the second synchronization scope is limited to operations on the pipeline stages determined by the destination stage mask specified by dstStageMask.

The first access scope is limited to access in the pipeline stages determined by the source stage mask specified by srcStageMask. It is also limited to access types in the source access mask specified by srcAccessMask.

The second access scope is limited to access in the pipeline stages determined by the destination stage mask specified by dstStageMask. It is also limited to access types in the destination access mask specified by dstAccessMask.

The availability and visibility operations defined by a subpass dependency affect the execution of image layout transitions within the render pass.

Note

For non-attachment resources, the memory dependency expressed by subpass dependency is nearly identical to that of a VkMemoryBarrier (with matching srcAccessMask/dstAccessMask parameters) submitted as a part of a vkCmdPipelineBarrier (with matching srcStageMask/dstStageMask parameters). The only difference being that its scopes are limited to the identified subpasses rather than potentially affecting everything before and after.

For attachments however, subpass dependencies work more like an VkImageMemoryBarrier defined similarly to the VkMemoryBarrier above, the queue family indices set to VK_QUEUE_FAMILY_IGNORED, and layouts as follows:

The equivalent to oldLayout is the attachment’s layout according to the subpass description for srcSubpass.
The equivalent to newLayout is the attachment’s layout according to the subpass description for dstSubpass.

Valid Usage

If srcSubpass is not VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, srcStageMask must not include VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT
If dstSubpass is not VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, dstStageMask must not include VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_HOST_BIT
If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, srcStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, dstStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, srcStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, dstStageMask must not contain VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT
srcSubpass must be less than or equal to dstSubpass, unless one of them is VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, to avoid cyclic dependencies and ensure a valid execution order
srcSubpass and dstSubpass must not both be equal to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL
If srcSubpass is equal to dstSubpass, srcStageMask and dstStageMask must only contain one of VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_DRAW_INDIRECT_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_INPUT_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_VERTEX_SHADER_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_SHADER_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_SHADER_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_GEOMETRY_SHADER_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT, VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT, or VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_GRAPHICS_BIT
If srcSubpass is equal to dstSubpass and not all of the stages in srcStageMask and dstStageMask are framebuffer-space stages, the logically latest pipeline stage in srcStageMask must be logically earlier than or equal to the logically earliest pipeline stage in dstStageMask
Any access flag included in srcAccessMask must be supported by one of the pipeline stages in srcStageMask, as specified in the table of supported access types.
Any access flag included in dstAccessMask must be supported by one of the pipeline stages in dstStageMask, as specified in the table of supported access types.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

srcStageMask must be a valid combination of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
srcStageMask must not be 0
dstStageMask must be a valid combination of VkPipelineStageFlagBits values
dstStageMask must not be 0
srcAccessMask must be a valid combination of VkAccessFlagBits values
dstAccessMask must be a valid combination of VkAccessFlagBits values
dependencyFlags must be a valid combination of VkDependencyFlagBits values

If there is no subpass dependency from VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL to the first subpass that uses an attachment, then an implicit subpass dependency exists from VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL to the first subpass it is used in. The subpass dependency operates as if defined with the following parameters:

VkSubpassDependency implicitDependency = {
    .srcSubpass = VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL;
    .dstSubpass = firstSubpass; // First subpass attachment is used in
    .srcStageMask = VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_TOP_OF_PIPE_BIT;
    .dstStageMask = VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_COMMANDS_BIT;
    .srcAccessMask = 0;
    .dstAccessMask = VK_ACCESS_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT |
                     VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT |
                     VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT |
                     VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT |
                     VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT;
    .dependencyFlags = 0;
};

Similarly, if there is no subpass dependency from the last subpass that uses an attachment to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, then an implicit subpass dependency exists from the last subpass it is used in to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL. The subpass dependency operates as if defined with the following parameters:

VkSubpassDependency implicitDependency = {
    .srcSubpass = lastSubpass; // Last subpass attachment is used in
    .dstSubpass = VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL;
    .srcStageMask = VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_ALL_COMMANDS_BIT;
    .dstStageMask = VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_BOTTOM_OF_PIPE_BIT;
    .srcAccessMask = VK_ACCESS_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT |
                     VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT |
                     VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT |
                     VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT |
                     VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT;
    .dstAccessMask = 0;
    .dependencyFlags = 0;
};

As subpasses may overlap or execute out of order with regards to other subpasses unless a subpass dependency chain describes otherwise, the layout transitions required between subpasses cannot be known to an application. Instead, an application provides the layout that each attachment must be in at the start and end of a render pass, and the layout it must be in during each subpass it is used in. The implementation then must execute layout transitions between subpasses in order to guarantee that the images are in the layouts required by each subpass, and in the final layout at the end of the render pass.

Automatic layout transitions apply to the entire image subresource attached to the framebuffer.

Automatic layout transitions away from the layout used in a subpass happen-after the availability operations for all dependencies with that subpass as the srcSubpass.

Automatic layout transitions into the layout used in a subpass happen-before the visibility operations for all dependencies with that subpass as the dstSubpass.

Automatic layout transitions away from initialLayout happens-after the availability operations for all dependencies with a srcSubpass equal to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, where dstSubpass uses the attachment that will be transitioned. For attachments created with VK_ATTACHMENT_DESCRIPTION_MAY_ALIAS_BIT, automatic layout transitions away from initialLayout happen-after the availability operations for all dependencies with a srcSubpass equal to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, where dstSubpass uses any aliased attachment.

Automatic layout transitions into finalLayout happens-before the visibility operations for all dependencies with a dstSubpass equal to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, where srcSubpass uses the attachment that will be transitioned. For attachments created with VK_ATTACHMENT_DESCRIPTION_MAY_ALIAS_BIT, automatic layout transitions into finalLayout happen-before the visibility operations for all dependencies with a dstSubpass equal to VK_SUBPASS_EXTERNAL, where srcSubpass uses any aliased attachment.

If two subpasses use the same attachment in different layouts, and both layouts are read-only, no subpass dependency needs to be specified between those subpasses. If an implementation treats those layouts separately, it must insert an implicit subpass dependency between those subpasses to separate the uses in each layout. The subpass dependency operates as if defined with the following parameters:

// Used for input attachments
VkPipelineStageFlags inputAttachmentStages = VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_FRAGMENT_SHADER_BIT;
VkAccessFlags inputAttachmentAccess = VK_ACCESS_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT;

// Used for depth/stencil attachments
VkPipelineStageFlags depthStencilAttachmentStages = VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_EARLY_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT | VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_LATE_FRAGMENT_TESTS_BIT;
VkAccessFlags depthStencilAttachmentAccess = VK_ACCESS_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_READ_BIT;

VkSubpassDependency implicitDependency = {
    .srcSubpass = firstSubpass;
    .dstSubpass = secondSubpass;
    .srcStageMask = inputAttachmentStages | depthStencilAttachmentStages;
    .dstStageMask = inputAttachmentStages | depthStencilAttachmentStages;
    .srcAccessMask = inputAttachmentAccess | depthStencilAttachmentAccess;
    .dstAccessMask = inputAttachmentAccess | depthStencilAttachmentAccess;
    .dependencyFlags = 0;
};

If a subpass uses the same attachment as both an input attachment and either a color attachment or a depth/stencil attachment, writes via the color or depth/stencil attachment are not automatically made visible to reads via the input attachment, causing a feedback loop, except in any of the following conditions:

If the color components or depth/stencil components read by the input attachment are mutually exclusive with the components written by the color or depth/stencil attachments, then there is no feedback loop. This requires the graphics pipelines used by the subpass to disable writes to color components that are read as inputs via the colorWriteMask, and to disable writes to depth/stencil components that are read as inputs via depthWriteEnable or stencilTestEnable.
If the attachment is used as an input attachment and depth/stencil attachment only, and the depth/stencil attachment is not written to.
If a memory dependency is inserted between when the attachment is written and when it is subsequently read by later fragments. Pipeline barriers expressing a subpass self-dependency are the only way to achieve this, and one must be inserted every time a fragment will read values at a particular sample (x, y, layer, sample) coordinate, if those values have been written since the most recent pipeline barrier; or the since start of the subpass if there have been no pipeline barriers since the start of the subpass.

An attachment used as both an input attachment and a color attachment must be in the VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_GENERAL layout. An attachment used as an input attachment and depth/stencil attachment must be in the VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL, or VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_GENERAL layout. An attachment must not be used as both a depth/stencil attachment and a color attachment.

To destroy a render pass, call:

void vkDestroyRenderPass(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkRenderPass                                renderPass,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the render pass.
renderPass is the handle of the render pass to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

Valid Usage

All submitted commands that refer to renderPass must have completed execution
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when renderPass was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when renderPass was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If renderPass is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, renderPass must be a valid VkRenderPass handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If renderPass is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to renderPass must be externally synchronized

7.2. Render Pass Compatibility

Framebuffers and graphics pipelines are created based on a specific render pass object. They must only be used with that render pass object, or one compatible with it.

Two attachment references are compatible if they have matching format and sample count, or are both VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED or the pointer that would contain the reference is NULL.

Two arrays of attachment references are compatible if all corresponding pairs of attachments are compatible. If the arrays are of different lengths, attachment references not present in the smaller array are treated as VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED.

Two render passes are compatible if their corresponding color, input, resolve, and depth/stencil attachment references are compatible and if they are otherwise identical except for:

Initial and final image layout in attachment descriptions
Load and store operations in attachment descriptions
Image layout in attachment references

A framebuffer is compatible with a render pass if it was created using the same render pass or a compatible render pass.

7.3. Framebuffers

Render passes operate in conjunction with framebuffers. Framebuffers represent a collection of specific memory attachments that a render pass instance uses.

Framebuffers are represented by VkFramebuffer handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkFramebuffer)

To create a framebuffer, call:

VkResult vkCreateFramebuffer(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkFramebufferCreateInfo*              pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkFramebuffer*                              pFramebuffer);

device is the logical device that creates the framebuffer.
pCreateInfo points to a VkFramebufferCreateInfo structure which describes additional information about framebuffer creation.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pFramebuffer points to a VkFramebuffer handle in which the resulting framebuffer object is returned.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkFramebufferCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pFramebuffer must be a valid pointer to a VkFramebuffer handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkFramebufferCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkFramebufferCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType             sType;
    const void*                 pNext;
    VkFramebufferCreateFlags    flags;
    VkRenderPass                renderPass;
    uint32_t                    attachmentCount;
    const VkImageView*          pAttachments;
    uint32_t                    width;
    uint32_t                    height;
    uint32_t                    layers;
} VkFramebufferCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
renderPass is a render pass that defines what render passes the framebuffer will be compatible with. See Render Pass Compatibility for details.
attachmentCount is the number of attachments.
pAttachments is an array of VkImageView handles, each of which will be used as the corresponding attachment in a render pass instance.
width, height and layers define the dimensions of the framebuffer.

Applications must ensure that all accesses to memory that backs image subresources used as attachments in a given renderpass instance either happen-before the load operations for those attachments, or happen-after the store operations for those attachments.

Note

This restriction means that the render pass has full knowledge of all uses of all of the attachments, so that the implementation is able to make correct decisions about when and how to perform layout transitions, when to overlap execution of subpasses, etc.

It is legal for a subpass to use no color or depth/stencil attachments, and rather use shader side effects such as image stores and atomics to produce an output. In this case, the subpass continues to use the width, height, and layers of the framebuffer to define the dimensions of the rendering area, and the rasterizationSamples from each pipeline’s VkPipelineMultisampleStateCreateInfo to define the number of samples used in rasterization; however, if VkPhysicalDeviceFeatures::variableMultisampleRate is VK_FALSE, then all pipelines to be bound with a given zero-attachment subpass must have the same value for VkPipelineMultisampleStateCreateInfo::rasterizationSamples.

Valid Usage

attachmentCount must be equal to the attachment count specified in renderPass
Each element of pAttachments that is used as a color attachment or resolve attachment by renderPass must have been created with a usage value including VK_IMAGE_USAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_BIT
Each element of pAttachments that is used as a depth/stencil attachment by renderPass must have been created with a usage value including VK_IMAGE_USAGE_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_BIT
Each element of pAttachments that is used as an input attachment by renderPass must have been created with a usage value including VK_IMAGE_USAGE_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_BIT
Each element of pAttachments must have been created with an VkFormat value that matches the VkFormat specified by the corresponding VkAttachmentDescription in renderPass
Each element of pAttachments must have been created with a samples value that matches the samples value specified by the corresponding VkAttachmentDescription in renderPass
Each element of pAttachments must have dimensions at least as large as the corresponding framebuffer dimension
Each element of pAttachments must only specify a single mip level
Each element of pAttachments must have been created with the identity swizzle
width must be greater than 0.
width must be less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxFramebufferWidth
height must be greater than 0.
height must be less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxFramebufferHeight
layers must be greater than 0.
layers must be less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxFramebufferLayers

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_FRAMEBUFFER_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0
renderPass must be a valid VkRenderPass handle
If attachmentCount is not 0, pAttachments must be a valid pointer to an array of attachmentCount valid VkImageView handles
Both of renderPass, and the elements of pAttachments that are valid handles must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

typedef VkFlags VkFramebufferCreateFlags;

VkFramebufferCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

To destroy a framebuffer, call:

void vkDestroyFramebuffer(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkFramebuffer                               framebuffer,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the framebuffer.
framebuffer is the handle of the framebuffer to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

Valid Usage

All submitted commands that refer to framebuffer must have completed execution
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when framebuffer was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when framebuffer was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If framebuffer is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, framebuffer must be a valid VkFramebuffer handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If framebuffer is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to framebuffer must be externally synchronized

7.4. Render Pass Commands

An application records the commands for a render pass instance one subpass at a time, by beginning a render pass instance, iterating over the subpasses to record commands for that subpass, and then ending the render pass instance.

To begin a render pass instance, call:

void vkCmdBeginRenderPass(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    const VkRenderPassBeginInfo*                pRenderPassBegin,
    VkSubpassContents                           contents);

commandBuffer is the command buffer in which to record the command.
pRenderPassBegin is a pointer to a VkRenderPassBeginInfo structure (defined below) which specifies the render pass to begin an instance of, and the framebuffer the instance uses.
contents is a VkSubpassContents value specifying how the commands in the first subpass will be provided.

After beginning a render pass instance, the command buffer is ready to record the commands for the first subpass of that render pass.

Valid Usage

If any of the initialLayout or finalLayout member of the VkAttachmentDescription structures or the layout member of the VkAttachmentReference structures specified when creating the render pass specified in the renderPass member of pRenderPassBegin is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OPTIMAL then the corresponding attachment image subresource of the framebuffer specified in the framebuffer member of pRenderPassBegin must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_BIT set
If any of the initialLayout or finalLayout member of the VkAttachmentDescription structures or the layout member of the VkAttachmentReference structures specified when creating the render pass specified in the renderPass member of pRenderPassBegin is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_OPTIMAL, or VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL then the corresponding attachment image subresource of the framebuffer specified in the framebuffer member of pRenderPassBegin must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_BIT set
If any of the initialLayout or finalLayout member of the VkAttachmentDescription structures or the layout member of the VkAttachmentReference structures specified when creating the render pass specified in the renderPass member of pRenderPassBegin is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_SHADER_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL then the corresponding attachment image subresource of the framebuffer specified in the framebuffer member of pRenderPassBegin must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_SAMPLED_BIT or VK_IMAGE_USAGE_INPUT_ATTACHMENT_BIT set
If any of the initialLayout or finalLayout member of the VkAttachmentDescription structures or the layout member of the VkAttachmentReference structures specified when creating the render pass specified in the renderPass member of pRenderPassBegin is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_TRANSFER_SRC_OPTIMAL then the corresponding attachment image subresource of the framebuffer specified in the framebuffer member of pRenderPassBegin must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_TRANSFER_SRC_BIT set
If any of the initialLayout or finalLayout member of the VkAttachmentDescription structures or the layout member of the VkAttachmentReference structures specified when creating the render pass specified in the renderPass member of pRenderPassBegin is VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_TRANSFER_DST_OPTIMAL then the corresponding attachment image subresource of the framebuffer specified in the framebuffer member of pRenderPassBegin must have been created with VK_IMAGE_USAGE_TRANSFER_DST_BIT set
If any of the initialLayout members of the VkAttachmentDescription structures specified when creating the render pass specified in the renderPass member of pRenderPassBegin is not VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED, then each such initialLayout must be equal to the current layout of the corresponding attachment image subresource of the framebuffer specified in the framebuffer member of pRenderPassBegin
The srcStageMask and dstStageMask members of any element of the pDependencies member of VkRenderPassCreateInfo used to create renderPass must be supported by the capabilities of the queue family identified by the queueFamilyIndex member of the VkCommandPoolCreateInfo used to create the command pool which commandBuffer was allocated from.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
pRenderPassBegin must be a valid pointer to a valid VkRenderPassBeginInfo structure
contents must be a valid VkSubpassContents value
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support graphics operations
This command must only be called outside of a render pass instance
commandBuffer must be a primary VkCommandBuffer

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Primary

Outside

Graphics

The VkRenderPassBeginInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkRenderPassBeginInfo {
    VkStructureType        sType;
    const void*            pNext;
    VkRenderPass           renderPass;
    VkFramebuffer          framebuffer;
    VkRect2D               renderArea;
    uint32_t               clearValueCount;
    const VkClearValue*    pClearValues;
} VkRenderPassBeginInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
renderPass is the render pass to begin an instance of.
framebuffer is the framebuffer containing the attachments that are used with the render pass.
renderArea is the render area that is affected by the render pass instance, and is described in more detail below.
clearValueCount is the number of elements in pClearValues.
pClearValues is an array of VkClearValue structures that contains clear values for each attachment, if the attachment uses a loadOp value of VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_CLEAR or if the attachment has a depth/stencil format and uses a stencilLoadOp value of VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_CLEAR. The array is indexed by attachment number. Only elements corresponding to cleared attachments are used. Other elements of pClearValues are ignored.

renderArea is the render area that is affected by the render pass instance. The effects of attachment load, store and multisample resolve operations are restricted to the pixels whose x and y coordinates fall within the render area on all attachments. The render area extends to all layers of framebuffer. The application must ensure (using scissor if necessary) that all rendering is contained within the render area, otherwise the pixels outside of the render area become undefined and shader side effects may occur for fragments outside the render area. The render area must be contained within the framebuffer dimensions.

Note

There may be a performance cost for using a render area smaller than the framebuffer, unless it matches the render area granularity for the render pass.

Valid Usage

clearValueCount must be greater than the largest attachment index in renderPass that specifies a loadOp (or stencilLoadOp, if the attachment has a depth/stencil format) of VK_ATTACHMENT_LOAD_OP_CLEAR
If clearValueCount is not 0, pClearValues must be a valid pointer to an array of clearValueCount valid VkClearValue unions
renderPass must be compatible with the renderPass member of the VkFramebufferCreateInfo structure specified when creating framebuffer.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_RENDER_PASS_BEGIN_INFO
pNext must be NULL
renderPass must be a valid VkRenderPass handle
framebuffer must be a valid VkFramebuffer handle
Both of framebuffer, and renderPass must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

Possible values of vkCmdBeginRenderPass::contents, specifying how the commands in the first subpass will be provided, are:

typedef enum VkSubpassContents {
    VK_SUBPASS_CONTENTS_INLINE = 0,
    VK_SUBPASS_CONTENTS_SECONDARY_COMMAND_BUFFERS = 1,
} VkSubpassContents;

VK_SUBPASS_CONTENTS_INLINE specifies that the contents of the subpass will be recorded inline in the primary command buffer, and secondary command buffers must not be executed within the subpass.
VK_SUBPASS_CONTENTS_SECONDARY_COMMAND_BUFFERS specifies that the contents are recorded in secondary command buffers that will be called from the primary command buffer, and vkCmdExecuteCommands is the only valid command on the command buffer until vkCmdNextSubpass or vkCmdEndRenderPass.

To query the render area granularity, call:

void vkGetRenderAreaGranularity(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkRenderPass                                renderPass,
    VkExtent2D*                                 pGranularity);

device is the logical device that owns the render pass.
renderPass is a handle to a render pass.
pGranularity points to a VkExtent2D structure in which the granularity is returned.

The conditions leading to an optimal renderArea are:

the offset.x member in renderArea is a multiple of the width member of the returned VkExtent2D (the horizontal granularity).
the offset.y member in renderArea is a multiple of the height of the returned VkExtent2D (the vertical granularity).
either the offset.width member in renderArea is a multiple of the horizontal granularity or offset.x+offset.width is equal to the width of the framebuffer in the VkRenderPassBeginInfo.
either the offset.height member in renderArea is a multiple of the vertical granularity or offset.y+offset.height is equal to the height of the framebuffer in the VkRenderPassBeginInfo.

Subpass dependencies are not affected by the render area, and apply to the entire image subresources attached to the framebuffer as specified in the description of automatic layout transitions. Similarly, pipeline barriers are valid even if their effect extends outside the render area.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
renderPass must be a valid VkRenderPass handle
pGranularity must be a valid pointer to a VkExtent2D structure
renderPass must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

To transition to the next subpass in the render pass instance after recording the commands for a subpass, call:

void vkCmdNextSubpass(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    VkSubpassContents                           contents);

commandBuffer is the command buffer in which to record the command.
contents specifies how the commands in the next subpass will be provided, in the same fashion as the corresponding parameter of vkCmdBeginRenderPass.

The subpass index for a render pass begins at zero when vkCmdBeginRenderPass is recorded, and increments each time vkCmdNextSubpass is recorded.

Moving to the next subpass automatically performs any multisample resolve operations in the subpass being ended. End-of-subpass multisample resolves are treated as color attachment writes for the purposes of synchronization. That is, they are considered to execute in the VK_PIPELINE_STAGE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_OUTPUT_BIT pipeline stage and their writes are synchronized with VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_WRITE_BIT. Synchronization between rendering within a subpass and any resolve operations at the end of the subpass occurs automatically, without need for explicit dependencies or pipeline barriers. However, if the resolve attachment is also used in a different subpass, an explicit dependency is needed.

After transitioning to the next subpass, the application can record the commands for that subpass.

Valid Usage

The current subpass index must be less than the number of subpasses in the render pass minus one

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
contents must be a valid VkSubpassContents value
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support graphics operations
This command must only be called inside of a render pass instance
commandBuffer must be a primary VkCommandBuffer

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Primary

Inside

Graphics

To record a command to end a render pass instance after recording the commands for the last subpass, call:

void vkCmdEndRenderPass(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer);

commandBuffer is the command buffer in which to end the current render pass instance.

Ending a render pass instance performs any multisample resolve operations on the final subpass.

Valid Usage

The current subpass index must be equal to the number of subpasses in the render pass minus one

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support graphics operations
This command must only be called inside of a render pass instance
commandBuffer must be a primary VkCommandBuffer

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties

Primary

Inside

Graphics

8. Shaders

A shader specifies programmable operations that execute for each vertex, control point, tessellated vertex, primitive, fragment, or workgroup in the corresponding stage(s) of the graphics and compute pipelines.

Graphics pipelines include vertex shader execution as a result of primitive assembly, followed, if enabled, by tessellation control and evaluation shaders operating on patches, geometry shaders, if enabled, operating on primitives, and fragment shaders, if present, operating on fragments generated by Rasterization. In this specification, vertex, tessellation control, tessellation evaluation and geometry shaders are collectively referred to as vertex processing stages and occur in the logical pipeline before rasterization. The fragment shader occurs logically after rasterization.

Only the compute shader stage is included in a compute pipeline. Compute shaders operate on compute invocations in a workgroup.

Shaders can read from input variables, and read from and write to output variables. Input and output variables can be used to transfer data between shader stages, or to allow the shader to interact with values that exist in the execution environment. Similarly, the execution environment provides constants that describe capabilities.

Shader variables are associated with execution environment-provided inputs and outputs using built-in decorations in the shader. The available decorations for each stage are documented in the following subsections.

8.1. Shader Modules

Shader modules contain shader code and one or more entry points. Shaders are selected from a shader module by specifying an entry point as part of pipeline creation. The stages of a pipeline can use shaders that come from different modules. The shader code defining a shader module must be in the SPIR-V format, as described by the Vulkan Environment for SPIR-V appendix.

Shader modules are represented by VkShaderModule handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkShaderModule)

To create a shader module, call:

VkResult vkCreateShaderModule(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkShaderModuleCreateInfo*             pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkShaderModule*                             pShaderModule);

device is the logical device that creates the shader module.
pCreateInfo is a pointer to an instance of the VkShaderModuleCreateInfo structure.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pShaderModule points to a VkShaderModule handle in which the resulting shader module object is returned.

Once a shader module has been created, any entry points it contains can be used in pipeline shader stages as described in Compute Pipelines and Graphics Pipelines.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkShaderModuleCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pShaderModule must be a valid pointer to a VkShaderModule handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkShaderModuleCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkShaderModuleCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType              sType;
    const void*                  pNext;
    VkShaderModuleCreateFlags    flags;
    size_t                       codeSize;
    const uint32_t*              pCode;
} VkShaderModuleCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
codeSize is the size, in bytes, of the code pointed to by pCode.
pCode points to code that is used to create the shader module. The type and format of the code is determined from the content of the memory addressed by pCode.

Valid Usage

codeSize must be greater than 0
codeSize must be a multiple of 4
pCode must point to valid SPIR-V code, formatted and packed as described by the Khronos SPIR-V Specification
pCode must adhere to the validation rules described by the Validation Rules within a Module section of the SPIR-V Environment appendix
pCode must declare the Shader capability for SPIR-V code
pCode must not declare any capability that is not supported by the API, as described by the Capabilities section of the SPIR-V Environment appendix
If pCode declares any of the capabilities listed as optional in the SPIR-V Environment appendix, the corresponding feature(s) must be enabled.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_SHADER_MODULE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0
pCode must be a valid pointer to an array of \(codeSize \over 4\) uint32_t values

typedef VkFlags VkShaderModuleCreateFlags;

VkShaderModuleCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

To destroy a shader module, call:

void vkDestroyShaderModule(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkShaderModule                              shaderModule,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the shader module.
shaderModule is the handle of the shader module to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

A shader module can be destroyed while pipelines created using its shaders are still in use.

Valid Usage

If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when shaderModule was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when shaderModule was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If shaderModule is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, shaderModule must be a valid VkShaderModule handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If shaderModule is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to shaderModule must be externally synchronized

8.2. Shader Execution

At each stage of the pipeline, multiple invocations of a shader may execute simultaneously. Further, invocations of a single shader produced as the result of different commands may execute simultaneously. The relative execution order of invocations of the same shader type is undefined. Shader invocations may complete in a different order than that in which the primitives they originated from were drawn or dispatched by the application. However, fragment shader outputs are written to attachments in rasterization order.

The relative order of invocations of different shader types is largely undefined. However, when invoking a shader whose inputs are generated from a previous pipeline stage, the shader invocations from the previous stage are guaranteed to have executed far enough to generate input values for all required inputs.

8.3. Shader Memory Access Ordering

The order in which image or buffer memory is read or written by shaders is largely undefined. For some shader types (vertex, tessellation evaluation, and in some cases, fragment), even the number of shader invocations that may perform loads and stores is undefined.

In particular, the following rules apply:

Vertex and tessellation evaluation shaders will be invoked at least once for each unique vertex, as defined in those sections.
Fragment shaders will be invoked zero or more times, as defined in that section.
The relative order of invocations of the same shader type are undefined. A store issued by a shader when working on primitive B might complete prior to a store for primitive A, even if primitive A is specified prior to primitive B. This applies even to fragment shaders; while fragment shader outputs are always written to the framebuffer in rasterization order, stores executed by fragment shader invocations are not.
The relative order of invocations of different shader types is largely undefined.

Note

The above limitations on shader invocation order make some forms of synchronization between shader invocations within a single set of primitives unimplementable. For example, having one invocation poll memory written by another invocation assumes that the other invocation has been launched and will complete its writes in finite time.

Stores issued to different memory locations within a single shader invocation may not be visible to other invocations, or may not become visible in the order they were performed.

The OpMemoryBarrier instruction can be used to provide stronger ordering of reads and writes performed by a single invocation. OpMemoryBarrier guarantees that any memory transactions issued by the shader invocation prior to the instruction complete prior to the memory transactions issued after the instruction. Memory barriers are needed for algorithms that require multiple invocations to access the same memory and require the operations to be performed in a partially-defined relative order. For example, if one shader invocation does a series of writes, followed by an OpMemoryBarrier instruction, followed by another write, then the results of the series of writes before the barrier become visible to other shader invocations at a time earlier or equal to when the results of the final write become visible to those invocations. In practice it means that another invocation that sees the results of the final write would also see the previous writes. Without the memory barrier, the final write may be visible before the previous writes.

Writes that are the result of shader stores through a variable decorated with Coherent automatically have available writes to the same buffer, buffer view, or image view made visible to them, and are themselves automatically made available to access by the same buffer, buffer view, or image view. Reads that are the result of shader loads through a variable decorated with Coherent automatically have available writes to the same buffer, buffer view, or image view made visible to them. The order that coherent writes to different locations become available is undefined, unless enforced by a memory barrier instruction or other memory dependency.

Note

Explicit memory dependencies must still be used to guarantee availability and visibility for access via other buffers, buffer views, or image views.

The built-in atomic memory transaction instructions can be used to read and write a given memory address atomically. While built-in atomic functions issued by multiple shader invocations are executed in undefined order relative to each other, these functions perform both a read and a write of a memory address and guarantee that no other memory transaction will write to the underlying memory between the read and write. Atomic operations ensure automatic availability and visibility for writes and reads in the same way as those to Coherent variables.

Note

Memory accesses performed on different resource descriptors with the same memory backing may not be well-defined even with the Coherent decoration or via atomics, due to things such as image layouts or ownership of the resource - as described in the Synchronization and Cache Control chapter.

Note

Atomics allow shaders to use shared global addresses for mutual exclusion or as counters, among other uses.

8.4. Shader Inputs and Outputs

Data is passed into and out of shaders using variables with input or output storage class, respectively. User-defined inputs and outputs are connected between stages by matching their Location decorations. Additionally, data can be provided by or communicated to special functions provided by the execution environment using BuiltIn decorations.

In many cases, the same BuiltIn decoration can be used in multiple shader stages with similar meaning. The specific behavior of variables decorated as BuiltIn is documented in the following sections.

8.5. Vertex Shaders

Each vertex shader invocation operates on one vertex and its associated vertex attribute data, and outputs one vertex and associated data. Graphics pipelines must include a vertex shader, and the vertex shader stage is always the first shader stage in the graphics pipeline.

8.5.1. Vertex Shader Execution

A vertex shader must be executed at least once for each vertex specified by a draw command. During execution, the shader is presented with the index of the vertex and instance for which it has been invoked. Input variables declared in the vertex shader are filled by the implementation with the values of vertex attributes associated with the invocation being executed.

If the same vertex is specified multiple times in a draw command (e.g. by including the same index value multiple times in an index buffer) the implementation may reuse the results of vertex shading if it can statically determine that the vertex shader invocations will produce identical results.

Note

It is implementation-dependent when and if results of vertex shading are reused, and thus how many times the vertex shader will be executed. This is true also if the vertex shader contains stores or atomic operations (see vertexPipelineStoresAndAtomics).

8.6. Tessellation Control Shaders

The tessellation control shader is used to read an input patch provided by the application and to produce an output patch. Each tessellation control shader invocation operates on an input patch (after all control points in the patch are processed by a vertex shader) and its associated data, and outputs a single control point of the output patch and its associated data, and can also output additional per-patch data. The input patch is sized according to the patchControlPoints member of VkPipelineTessellationStateCreateInfo, as part of input assembly. The size of the output patch is controlled by the OpExecutionMode OutputVertices specified in the tessellation control or tessellation evaluation shaders, which must be specified in at least one of the shaders. The size of the input and output patches must each be greater than zero and less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxTessellationPatchSize.

8.6.1. Tessellation Control Shader Execution

A tessellation control shader is invoked at least once for each output vertex in a patch.

Inputs to the tessellation control shader are generated by the vertex shader. Each invocation of the tessellation control shader can read the attributes of any incoming vertices and their associated data. The invocations corresponding to a given patch execute logically in parallel, with undefined relative execution order. However, the OpControlBarrier instruction can be used to provide limited control of the execution order by synchronizing invocations within a patch, effectively dividing tessellation control shader execution into a set of phases. Tessellation control shaders will read undefined values if one invocation reads a per-vertex or per-patch attribute written by another invocation at any point during the same phase, or if two invocations attempt to write different values to the same per-patch output in a single phase.

8.7. Tessellation Evaluation Shaders

The Tessellation Evaluation Shader operates on an input patch of control points and their associated data, and a single input barycentric coordinate indicating the invocation’s relative position within the subdivided patch, and outputs a single vertex and its associated data.

8.7.1. Tessellation Evaluation Shader Execution

A tessellation evaluation shader is invoked at least once for each unique vertex generated by the tessellator.

8.8. Geometry Shaders

The geometry shader operates on a group of vertices and their associated data assembled from a single input primitive, and emits zero or more output primitives and the group of vertices and their associated data required for each output primitive.

8.8.1. Geometry Shader Execution

A geometry shader is invoked at least once for each primitive produced by the tessellation stages, or at least once for each primitive generated by primitive assembly when tessellation is not in use. The number of geometry shader invocations per input primitive is determined from the invocation count of the geometry shader specified by the OpExecutionMode Invocations in the geometry shader. If the invocation count is not specified, then a default of one invocation is executed.

8.9. Fragment Shaders

Fragment shaders are invoked as the result of rasterization in a graphics pipeline. Each fragment shader invocation operates on a single fragment and its associated data. With few exceptions, fragment shaders do not have access to any data associated with other fragments and are considered to execute in isolation of fragment shader invocations associated with other fragments.

8.9.1. Fragment Shader Execution

For each fragment generated by rasterization, a fragment shader may be invoked. A fragment shader must not be invoked if the Early Per-Fragment Tests cause it to have no coverage.

Furthermore, if it is determined that a fragment generated as the result of rasterizing a first primitive will have its outputs entirely overwritten by a fragment generated as the result of rasterizing a second primitive in the same subpass, and the fragment shader used for the fragment has no other side effects, then the fragment shader may not be executed for the fragment from the first primitive.

Relative ordering of execution of different fragment shader invocations is not defined.

When a primitive (partially or fully) covers a pixel, the number of times the fragment shader is invoked is implementation-dependent, but must obey the following constraints:

Each covered sample is included in a single fragment shader invocation.
When sample shading is not enabled, there is at least one fragment shader invocation.
When sample shading is enabled, the minimum number of fragment shader invocations is as defined in Sample Shading.

When there is more than one fragment shader invocation per pixel, the association of samples to invocations is implementation-dependent.

In addition to the conditions outlined above for the invocation of a fragment shader, a fragment shader invocation may be produced as a helper invocation. A helper invocation is a fragment shader invocation that is created solely for the purposes of evaluating derivatives for use in non-helper fragment shader invocations. Stores and atomics performed by helper invocations must not have any effect on memory, and values returned by atomic instructions in helper invocations are undefined.

8.9.2. Early Fragment Tests

An explicit control is provided to allow fragment shaders to enable early fragment tests. If the fragment shader specifies the EarlyFragmentTests OpExecutionMode, the per-fragment tests described in Early Fragment Test Mode are performed prior to fragment shader execution. Otherwise, they are performed after fragment shader execution.

8.10. Compute Shaders

Compute shaders are invoked via vkCmdDispatch and vkCmdDispatchIndirect commands. In general, they have access to similar resources as shader stages executing as part of a graphics pipeline.

Compute workloads are formed from groups of work items called workgroups and processed by the compute shader in the current compute pipeline. A workgroup is a collection of shader invocations that execute the same shader, potentially in parallel. Compute shaders execute in global workgroups which are divided into a number of local workgroups with a size that can be set by assigning a value to the LocalSize execution mode or via an object decorated by the WorkgroupSize decoration. An invocation within a local workgroup can share data with other members of the local workgroup through shared variables and issue memory and control flow barriers to synchronize with other members of the local workgroup.

8.11. Interpolation Decorations

Interpolation decorations control the behavior of attribute interpolation in the fragment shader stage. Interpolation decorations can be applied to Input storage class variables in the fragment shader stage’s interface, and control the interpolation behavior of those variables.

Inputs that could be interpolated can be decorated by at most one of the following decorations:

Flat: no interpolation
NoPerspective: linear interpolation (for lines and polygons).

Fragment input variables decorated with neither Flat nor NoPerspective use perspective-correct interpolation (for lines and polygons).

The presence of and type of interpolation is controlled by the above interpolation decorations as well as the auxiliary decorations Centroid and Sample.

A variable decorated with Flat will not be interpolated. Instead, it will have the same value for every fragment within a triangle. This value will come from a single provoking vertex. A variable decorated with Flat can also be decorated with Centroid or Sample, which will mean the same thing as decorating it only as Flat.

For fragment shader input variables decorated with neither Centroid nor Sample, the assigned variable may be interpolated anywhere within the pixel and a single value may be assigned to each sample within the pixel.

Centroid and Sample can be used to control the location and frequency of the sampling of the decorated fragment shader input. If a fragment shader input is decorated with Centroid, a single value may be assigned to that variable for all samples in the pixel, but that value must be interpolated to a location that lies in both the pixel and in the primitive being rendered, including any of the pixel’s samples covered by the primitive. Because the location at which the variable is interpolated may be different in neighboring pixels, and derivatives may be computed by computing differences between neighboring pixels, derivatives of centroid-sampled inputs may be less accurate than those for non-centroid interpolated variables. If a fragment shader input is decorated with Sample, a separate value must be assigned to that variable for each covered sample in the pixel, and that value must be sampled at the location of the individual sample. When rasterizationSamples is VK_SAMPLE_COUNT_1_BIT, the pixel center must be used for Centroid, Sample, and undecorated attribute interpolation.

Fragment shader inputs that are signed or unsigned integers, integer vectors, or any double-precision floating-point type must be decorated with Flat.

8.12. Static Use

A SPIR-V module declares a global object in memory using the OpVariable instruction, which results in a pointer x to that object. A specific entry point in a SPIR-V module is said to statically use that object if that entry point’s call tree contains a function that contains a memory instruction or image instruction with x as an id operand. See the “Memory Instructions” and “Image Instructions” subsections of section 3 “Binary Form” of the SPIR-V specification for the complete list of SPIR-V memory instructions.

Static use is not used to control the behavior of variables with Input and Output storage. The effects of those variables are applied based only on whether they are present in a shader entry point’s interface.

8.13. Invocation and Derivative Groups

An invocation group (see the subsection “Control Flow” of section 2 of the SPIR-V specification) for a compute shader is the set of invocations in a single local workgroup. For graphics shaders, an invocation group is an implementation-dependent subset of the set of shader invocations of a given shader stage which are produced by a single drawing command. For indirect drawing commands with drawCount greater than one, invocations from separate draws are in distinct invocation groups.

Note

Because the partitioning of invocations into invocation groups is implementation-dependent and not observable, applications generally need to assume the worst case of all invocations in a draw belonging to a single invocation group.

A derivative group (see the subsection “Control Flow” of section 2 of the SPIR-V 1.00 Revision 4 specification) for a fragment shader is the set of invocations generated by a single primitive (point, line, or triangle), including any helper invocations generated by that primitive. Derivatives are undefined for a sampled image instruction if the instruction is in flow control that is not uniform across the derivative group.

9. Pipelines

The following figure shows a block diagram of the Vulkan pipelines. Some Vulkan commands specify geometric objects to be drawn or computational work to be performed, while others specify state controlling how objects are handled by the various pipeline stages, or control data transfer between memory organized as images and buffers. Commands are effectively sent through a processing pipeline, either a graphics pipeline or a compute pipeline.

The first stage of the graphics pipeline (Input Assembler) assembles vertices to form geometric primitives such as points, lines, and triangles, based on a requested primitive topology. In the next stage (Vertex Shader) vertices can be transformed, computing positions and attributes for each vertex. If tessellation and/or geometry shaders are supported, they can then generate multiple primitives from a single input primitive, possibly changing the primitive topology or generating additional attribute data in the process.

The final resulting primitives are clipped to a clip volume in preparation for the next stage, Rasterization. The rasterizer produces a series of framebuffer addresses and values using a two-dimensional description of a point, line segment, or triangle. Each fragment so produced is fed to the next stage (Fragment Shader) that performs operations on individual fragments before they finally alter the framebuffer. These operations include conditional updates into the framebuffer based on incoming and previously stored depth values (to effect depth buffering), blending of incoming fragment colors with stored colors, as well as masking, stenciling, and other logical operations on fragment values.

Framebuffer operations read and write the color and depth/stencil attachments of the framebuffer for a given subpass of a render pass instance. The attachments can be used as input attachments in the fragment shader in a later subpass of the same render pass.

The compute pipeline is a separate pipeline from the graphics pipeline, which operates on one-, two-, or three-dimensional workgroups which can read from and write to buffer and image memory.

This ordering is meant only as a tool for describing Vulkan, not as a strict rule of how Vulkan is implemented, and we present it only as a means to organize the various operations of the pipelines. Actual ordering guarantees between pipeline stages are explained in detail in the synchronization chapter.

Figure 2. Block diagram of the Vulkan pipeline

Each pipeline is controlled by a monolithic object created from a description of all of the shader stages and any relevant fixed-function stages. Linking the whole pipeline together allows the optimization of shaders based on their input/outputs and eliminates expensive draw time state validation.

A pipeline object is bound to the current state using vkCmdBindPipeline. Any pipeline object state that is specified as dynamic is not applied to the current state when the pipeline object is bound, but is instead set by dynamic state setting commands.

No state, including dynamic state, is inherited from one command buffer to another.

Compute and graphics pipelines are each represented by VkPipeline handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkPipeline)

9.1. Compute Pipelines

Compute pipelines consist of a single static compute shader stage and the pipeline layout.

The compute pipeline represents a compute shader and is created by calling vkCreateComputePipelines with module and pName selecting an entry point from a shader module, where that entry point defines a valid compute shader, in the VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo structure contained within the VkComputePipelineCreateInfo structure.

To create compute pipelines, call:

VkResult vkCreateComputePipelines(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkPipelineCache                             pipelineCache,
    uint32_t                                    createInfoCount,
    const VkComputePipelineCreateInfo*          pCreateInfos,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkPipeline*                                 pPipelines);

device is the logical device that creates the compute pipelines.
pipelineCache is either VK_NULL_HANDLE, indicating that pipeline caching is disabled; or the handle of a valid pipeline cache object, in which case use of that cache is enabled for the duration of the command.
createInfoCount is the length of the pCreateInfos and pPipelines arrays.
pCreateInfos is an array of VkComputePipelineCreateInfo structures.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pPipelines is a pointer to an array in which the resulting compute pipeline objects are returned.

Valid Usage

If the flags member of any element of pCreateInfos contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and the basePipelineIndex member of that same element is not -1, basePipelineIndex must be less than the index into pCreateInfos that corresponds to that element
If the flags member of any element of pCreateInfos contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, the base pipeline must have been created with the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_ALLOW_DERIVATIVES_BIT flag set

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If pipelineCache is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, pipelineCache must be a valid VkPipelineCache handle
pCreateInfos must be a valid pointer to an array of createInfoCount valid VkComputePipelineCreateInfo structures
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pPipelines must be a valid pointer to an array of createInfoCount VkPipeline handles
createInfoCount must be greater than 0
If pipelineCache is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkComputePipelineCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkComputePipelineCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType                    sType;
    const void*                        pNext;
    VkPipelineCreateFlags              flags;
    VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo    stage;
    VkPipelineLayout                   layout;
    VkPipeline                         basePipelineHandle;
    int32_t                            basePipelineIndex;
} VkComputePipelineCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is a bitmask of VkPipelineCreateFlagBits specifying how the pipeline will be generated.
stage is a VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo describing the compute shader.
layout is the description of binding locations used by both the pipeline and descriptor sets used with the pipeline.
basePipelineHandle is a pipeline to derive from
basePipelineIndex is an index into the pCreateInfos parameter to use as a pipeline to derive from

The parameters basePipelineHandle and basePipelineIndex are described in more detail in Pipeline Derivatives.

stage points to a structure of type VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo.

Valid Usage

If flags contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and basePipelineIndex is -1, basePipelineHandle must be a valid handle to a compute VkPipeline
If flags contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and basePipelineHandle is VK_NULL_HANDLE, basePipelineIndex must be a valid index into the calling command’s pCreateInfos parameter
If flags contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and basePipelineIndex is not -1, basePipelineHandle must be VK_NULL_HANDLE
If flags contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and basePipelineHandle is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, basePipelineIndex must be -1
The stage member of stage must be VK_SHADER_STAGE_COMPUTE_BIT
The shader code for the entry point identified by stage and the rest of the state identified by this structure must adhere to the pipeline linking rules described in the Shader Interfaces chapter
layout must be consistent with the layout of the compute shader specified in stage
The number of resources in layout accessible to the compute shader stage must be less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxPerStageResources

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_COMPUTE_PIPELINE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be a valid combination of VkPipelineCreateFlagBits values
stage must be a valid VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo structure
layout must be a valid VkPipelineLayout handle
Both of basePipelineHandle, and layout that are valid handles must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

The VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType                     sType;
    const void*                         pNext;
    VkPipelineShaderStageCreateFlags    flags;
    VkShaderStageFlagBits               stage;
    VkShaderModule                      module;
    const char*                         pName;
    const VkSpecializationInfo*         pSpecializationInfo;
} VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
stage is a VkShaderStageFlagBits value specifying a single pipeline stage.
module is a VkShaderModule object that contains the shader for this stage.
pName is a pointer to a null-terminated UTF-8 string specifying the entry point name of the shader for this stage.
pSpecializationInfo is a pointer to VkSpecializationInfo, as described in Specialization Constants, and can be NULL.

Valid Usage

If the geometry shaders feature is not enabled, stage must not be VK_SHADER_STAGE_GEOMETRY_BIT
If the tessellation shaders feature is not enabled, stage must not be VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_BIT or VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_BIT
stage must not be VK_SHADER_STAGE_ALL_GRAPHICS, or VK_SHADER_STAGE_ALL
pName must be the name of an OpEntryPoint in module with an execution model that matches stage
If the identified entry point includes any variable in its interface that is declared with the ClipDistance BuiltIn decoration, that variable must not have an array size greater than VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxClipDistances
If the identified entry point includes any variable in its interface that is declared with the CullDistance BuiltIn decoration, that variable must not have an array size greater than VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxCullDistances
If the identified entry point includes any variables in its interface that are declared with the ClipDistance or CullDistance BuiltIn decoration, those variables must not have array sizes which sum to more than VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxCombinedClipAndCullDistances
If the identified entry point includes any variable in its interface that is declared with the SampleMask BuiltIn decoration, that variable must not have an array size greater than VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxSampleMaskWords
If stage is VK_SHADER_STAGE_VERTEX_BIT, the identified entry point must not include any input variable in its interface that is decorated with CullDistance
If stage is VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_BIT or VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_BIT, and the identified entry point has an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies a patch size with OutputVertices, the patch size must be greater than 0 and less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxTessellationPatchSize
If stage is VK_SHADER_STAGE_GEOMETRY_BIT, the identified entry point must have an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies a maximum output vertex count that is greater than 0 and less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxGeometryOutputVertices
If stage is VK_SHADER_STAGE_GEOMETRY_BIT, the identified entry point must have an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies an invocation count that is greater than 0 and less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxGeometryShaderInvocations
If stage is VK_SHADER_STAGE_GEOMETRY_BIT, and the identified entry point writes to Layer for any primitive, it must write the same value to Layer for all vertices of a given primitive
If stage is VK_SHADER_STAGE_GEOMETRY_BIT, and the identified entry point writes to ViewportIndex for any primitive, it must write the same value to ViewportIndex for all vertices of a given primitive
If stage is VK_SHADER_STAGE_FRAGMENT_BIT, the identified entry point must not include any output variables in its interface decorated with CullDistance
If stage is VK_SHADER_STAGE_FRAGMENT_BIT, and the identified entry point writes to FragDepth in any execution path, it must write to FragDepth in all execution paths

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PIPELINE_SHADER_STAGE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0
stage must be a valid VkShaderStageFlagBits value
module must be a valid VkShaderModule handle
pName must be a null-terminated UTF-8 string
If pSpecializationInfo is not NULL, pSpecializationInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkSpecializationInfo structure

typedef VkFlags VkPipelineShaderStageCreateFlags;

VkPipelineShaderStageCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

Commands and structures which need to specify one or more shader stages do so using a bitmask whose bits correspond to stages. Bits which can be set to specify shader stages are:

typedef enum VkShaderStageFlagBits {
    VK_SHADER_STAGE_VERTEX_BIT = 0x00000001,
    VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_BIT = 0x00000002,
    VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_BIT = 0x00000004,
    VK_SHADER_STAGE_GEOMETRY_BIT = 0x00000008,
    VK_SHADER_STAGE_FRAGMENT_BIT = 0x00000010,
    VK_SHADER_STAGE_COMPUTE_BIT = 0x00000020,
    VK_SHADER_STAGE_ALL_GRAPHICS = 0x0000001F,
    VK_SHADER_STAGE_ALL = 0x7FFFFFFF,
} VkShaderStageFlagBits;

VK_SHADER_STAGE_VERTEX_BIT specifies the vertex stage.
VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_BIT specifies the tessellation control stage.
VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_BIT specifies the tessellation evaluation stage.
VK_SHADER_STAGE_GEOMETRY_BIT specifies the geometry stage.
VK_SHADER_STAGE_FRAGMENT_BIT specifies the fragment stage.
VK_SHADER_STAGE_COMPUTE_BIT specifies the compute stage.
VK_SHADER_STAGE_ALL_GRAPHICS is a combination of bits used as shorthand to specify all graphics stages defined above (excluding the compute stage).
VK_SHADER_STAGE_ALL is a combination of bits used as shorthand to specify all shader stages supported by the device, including all additional stages which are introduced by extensions.

typedef VkFlags VkShaderStageFlags;

VkShaderStageFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkShaderStageFlagBits.

9.2. Graphics Pipelines

Graphics pipelines consist of multiple shader stages, multiple fixed-function pipeline stages, and a pipeline layout.

To create graphics pipelines, call:

VkResult vkCreateGraphicsPipelines(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkPipelineCache                             pipelineCache,
    uint32_t                                    createInfoCount,
    const VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo*         pCreateInfos,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkPipeline*                                 pPipelines);

device is the logical device that creates the graphics pipelines.
pipelineCache is either VK_NULL_HANDLE, indicating that pipeline caching is disabled; or the handle of a valid pipeline cache object, in which case use of that cache is enabled for the duration of the command.
createInfoCount is the length of the pCreateInfos and pPipelines arrays.
pCreateInfos is an array of VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo structures.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pPipelines is a pointer to an array in which the resulting graphics pipeline objects are returned.

The VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo structure includes an array of shader create info structures containing all the desired active shader stages, as well as creation info to define all relevant fixed-function stages, and a pipeline layout.

Valid Usage

If the flags member of any element of pCreateInfos contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and the basePipelineIndex member of that same element is not -1, basePipelineIndex must be less than the index into pCreateInfos that corresponds to that element
If the flags member of any element of pCreateInfos contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, the base pipeline must have been created with the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_ALLOW_DERIVATIVES_BIT flag set

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If pipelineCache is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, pipelineCache must be a valid VkPipelineCache handle
pCreateInfos must be a valid pointer to an array of createInfoCount valid VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo structures
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pPipelines must be a valid pointer to an array of createInfoCount VkPipeline handles
createInfoCount must be greater than 0
If pipelineCache is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType                                  sType;
    const void*                                      pNext;
    VkPipelineCreateFlags                            flags;
    uint32_t                                         stageCount;
    const VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo*           pStages;
    const VkPipelineVertexInputStateCreateInfo*      pVertexInputState;
    const VkPipelineInputAssemblyStateCreateInfo*    pInputAssemblyState;
    const VkPipelineTessellationStateCreateInfo*     pTessellationState;
    const VkPipelineViewportStateCreateInfo*         pViewportState;
    const VkPipelineRasterizationStateCreateInfo*    pRasterizationState;
    const VkPipelineMultisampleStateCreateInfo*      pMultisampleState;
    const VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo*     pDepthStencilState;
    const VkPipelineColorBlendStateCreateInfo*       pColorBlendState;
    const VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo*          pDynamicState;
    VkPipelineLayout                                 layout;
    VkRenderPass                                     renderPass;
    uint32_t                                         subpass;
    VkPipeline                                       basePipelineHandle;
    int32_t                                          basePipelineIndex;
} VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is a bitmask of VkPipelineCreateFlagBits specifying how the pipeline will be generated.
stageCount is the number of entries in the pStages array.
pStages is an array of size stageCount structures of type VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo describing the set of the shader stages to be included in the graphics pipeline.
pVertexInputState is a pointer to an instance of the VkPipelineVertexInputStateCreateInfo structure.
pInputAssemblyState is a pointer to an instance of the VkPipelineInputAssemblyStateCreateInfo structure which determines input assembly behavior, as described in Drawing Commands.
pTessellationState is a pointer to an instance of the VkPipelineTessellationStateCreateInfo structure, and is ignored if the pipeline does not include a tessellation control shader stage and tessellation evaluation shader stage.
pViewportState is a pointer to an instance of the VkPipelineViewportStateCreateInfo structure, and is ignored if the pipeline has rasterization disabled.
pRasterizationState is a pointer to an instance of the VkPipelineRasterizationStateCreateInfo structure.
pMultisampleState is a pointer to an instance of the VkPipelineMultisampleStateCreateInfo, and is ignored if the pipeline has rasterization disabled.
pDepthStencilState is a pointer to an instance of the VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo structure, and is ignored if the pipeline has rasterization disabled or if the subpass of the render pass the pipeline is created against does not use a depth/stencil attachment.
pColorBlendState is a pointer to an instance of the VkPipelineColorBlendStateCreateInfo structure, and is ignored if the pipeline has rasterization disabled or if the subpass of the render pass the pipeline is created against does not use any color attachments.
pDynamicState is a pointer to VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo and is used to indicate which properties of the pipeline state object are dynamic and can be changed independently of the pipeline state. This can be NULL, which means no state in the pipeline is considered dynamic.
layout is the description of binding locations used by both the pipeline and descriptor sets used with the pipeline.
renderPass is a handle to a render pass object describing the environment in which the pipeline will be used; the pipeline must only be used with an instance of any render pass compatible with the one provided. See Render Pass Compatibility for more information.
subpass is the index of the subpass in the render pass where this pipeline will be used.
basePipelineHandle is a pipeline to derive from.
basePipelineIndex is an index into the pCreateInfos parameter to use as a pipeline to derive from.

The parameters basePipelineHandle and basePipelineIndex are described in more detail in Pipeline Derivatives.

pStages points to an array of VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo structures, which were previously described in Compute Pipelines.

pDynamicState points to a structure of type VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo.

Valid Usage

If flags contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and basePipelineIndex is -1, basePipelineHandle must be a valid handle to a graphics VkPipeline
If flags contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and basePipelineHandle is VK_NULL_HANDLE, basePipelineIndex must be a valid index into the calling command’s pCreateInfos parameter
If flags contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and basePipelineIndex is not -1, basePipelineHandle must be VK_NULL_HANDLE
If flags contains the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag, and basePipelineHandle is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, basePipelineIndex must be -1
The stage member of each element of pStages must be unique
The stage member of one element of pStages must be VK_SHADER_STAGE_VERTEX_BIT
The stage member of each element of pStages must not be VK_SHADER_STAGE_COMPUTE_BIT
If pStages includes a tessellation control shader stage, it must include a tessellation evaluation shader stage
If pStages includes a tessellation evaluation shader stage, it must include a tessellation control shader stage
If pStages includes a tessellation control shader stage and a tessellation evaluation shader stage, pTessellationState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineTessellationStateCreateInfo structure
If pStages includes tessellation shader stages, the shader code of at least one stage must contain an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies the type of subdivision in the pipeline
If pStages includes tessellation shader stages, and the shader code of both stages contain an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies the type of subdivision in the pipeline, they must both specify the same subdivision mode
If pStages includes tessellation shader stages, the shader code of at least one stage must contain an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies the output patch size in the pipeline
If pStages includes tessellation shader stages, and the shader code of both contain an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies the out patch size in the pipeline, they must both specify the same patch size
If pStages includes tessellation shader stages, the topology member of pInputAssembly must be VK_PRIMITIVE_TOPOLOGY_PATCH_LIST
If the topology member of pInputAssembly is VK_PRIMITIVE_TOPOLOGY_PATCH_LIST, pStages must include tessellation shader stages
If pStages includes a geometry shader stage, and does not include any tessellation shader stages, its shader code must contain an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies an input primitive type that is compatible with the primitive topology specified in pInputAssembly
If pStages includes a geometry shader stage, and also includes tessellation shader stages, its shader code must contain an OpExecutionMode instruction that specifies an input primitive type that is compatible with the primitive topology that is output by the tessellation stages
If pStages includes a fragment shader stage and a geometry shader stage, and the fragment shader code reads from an input variable that is decorated with PrimitiveID, then the geometry shader code must write to a matching output variable, decorated with PrimitiveID, in all execution paths
If pStages includes a fragment shader stage, its shader code must not read from any input attachment that is defined as VK_ATTACHMENT_UNUSED in subpass
The shader code for the entry points identified by pStages, and the rest of the state identified by this structure must adhere to the pipeline linking rules described in the Shader Interfaces chapter
If rasterization is not disabled and subpass uses a depth/stencil attachment in renderPass that has a layout of VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL in the VkAttachmentReference defined by subpass, the depthWriteEnable member of pDepthStencilState must be VK_FALSE
If rasterization is not disabled and subpass uses a depth/stencil attachment in renderPass that has a layout of VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_READ_ONLY_OPTIMAL in the VkAttachmentReference defined by subpass, the failOp, passOp and depthFailOp members of each of the front and back members of pDepthStencilState must be VK_STENCIL_OP_KEEP
If rasterization is not disabled and the subpass uses color attachments, then for each color attachment in the subpass the blendEnable member of the corresponding element of the pAttachment member of pColorBlendState must be VK_FALSE if the format of the attachment does not support color blend operations, as specified by the VK_FORMAT_FEATURE_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_BLEND_BIT flag in VkFormatProperties::linearTilingFeatures or VkFormatProperties::optimalTilingFeatures returned by vkGetPhysicalDeviceFormatProperties
If rasterization is not disabled and the subpass uses color attachments, the attachmentCount member of pColorBlendState must be equal to the colorAttachmentCount used to create subpass
If no element of the pDynamicStates member of pDynamicState is VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_VIEWPORT, the pViewports member of pViewportState must be a valid pointer to an array of pViewportState::viewportCount VkViewport structures
If no element of the pDynamicStates member of pDynamicState is VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_SCISSOR, the pScissors member of pViewportState must be a valid pointer to an array of pViewportState::scissorCount VkRect2D structures
If the wide lines feature is not enabled, and no element of the pDynamicStates member of pDynamicState is VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_LINE_WIDTH, the lineWidth member of pRasterizationState must be 1.0
If the rasterizerDiscardEnable member of pRasterizationState is VK_FALSE, pViewportState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineViewportStateCreateInfo structure
If the rasterizerDiscardEnable member of pRasterizationState is VK_FALSE, pMultisampleState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineMultisampleStateCreateInfo structure
If the rasterizerDiscardEnable member of pRasterizationState is VK_FALSE, and subpass uses a depth/stencil attachment, pDepthStencilState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo structure
If the rasterizerDiscardEnable member of pRasterizationState is VK_FALSE, and subpass uses color attachments, pColorBlendState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineColorBlendStateCreateInfo structure
If the depth bias clamping feature is not enabled, no element of the pDynamicStates member of pDynamicState is VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_DEPTH_BIAS, and the depthBiasEnable member of pRasterizationState is VK_TRUE, the depthBiasClamp member of pRasterizationState must be 0.0
If no element of the pDynamicStates member of pDynamicState is VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_DEPTH_BOUNDS, and the depthBoundsTestEnable member of pDepthStencilState is VK_TRUE, the minDepthBounds and maxDepthBounds members of pDepthStencilState must be between 0.0 and 1.0, inclusive
layout must be consistent with all shaders specified in pStages
If subpass uses color and/or depth/stencil attachments, then the rasterizationSamples member of pMultisampleState must be the same as the sample count for those subpass attachments
If subpass does not use any color and/or depth/stencil attachments, then the rasterizationSamples member of pMultisampleState must follow the rules for a zero-attachment subpass
subpass must be a valid subpass within renderPass
The number of resources in layout accessible to each shader stage that is used by the pipeline must be less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::maxPerStageResources

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_GRAPHICS_PIPELINE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be a valid combination of VkPipelineCreateFlagBits values
pStages must be a valid pointer to an array of stageCount valid VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo structures
pVertexInputState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineVertexInputStateCreateInfo structure
pInputAssemblyState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineInputAssemblyStateCreateInfo structure
pRasterizationState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineRasterizationStateCreateInfo structure
If pDynamicState is not NULL, pDynamicState must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo structure
layout must be a valid VkPipelineLayout handle
renderPass must be a valid VkRenderPass handle
stageCount must be greater than 0
Each of basePipelineHandle, layout, and renderPass that are valid handles must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

Possible values of the flags member of VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo and VkComputePipelineCreateInfo, specifying how a pipeline is created, are:

typedef enum VkPipelineCreateFlagBits {
    VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DISABLE_OPTIMIZATION_BIT = 0x00000001,
    VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_ALLOW_DERIVATIVES_BIT = 0x00000002,
    VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT = 0x00000004,
} VkPipelineCreateFlagBits;

VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DISABLE_OPTIMIZATION_BIT specifies that the created pipeline will not be optimized. Using this flag may reduce the time taken to create the pipeline.
VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_ALLOW_DERIVATIVES_BIT specifies that the pipeline to be created is allowed to be the parent of a pipeline that will be created in a subsequent call to vkCreateGraphicsPipelines or vkCreateComputePipelines.
VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT specifies that the pipeline to be created will be a child of a previously created parent pipeline.

It is valid to set both VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_ALLOW_DERIVATIVES_BIT and VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT. This allows a pipeline to be both a parent and possibly a child in a pipeline hierarchy. See Pipeline Derivatives for more information.

typedef VkFlags VkPipelineCreateFlags;

VkPipelineCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask of zero or more VkPipelineCreateFlagBits.

The VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType                      sType;
    const void*                          pNext;
    VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateFlags    flags;
    uint32_t                             dynamicStateCount;
    const VkDynamicState*                pDynamicStates;
} VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
dynamicStateCount is the number of elements in the pDynamicStates array.
pDynamicStates is an array of VkDynamicState values specifying which pieces of pipeline state will use the values from dynamic state commands rather than from pipeline state creation info.

Valid Usage

Each element of pDynamicStates must be unique

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PIPELINE_DYNAMIC_STATE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0
pDynamicStates must be a valid pointer to an array of dynamicStateCount valid VkDynamicState values
dynamicStateCount must be greater than 0

typedef VkFlags VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateFlags;

VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

The source of different pieces of dynamic state is specified by the VkPipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo::pDynamicStates property of the currently active pipeline, each of whose elements must be one of the values:

typedef enum VkDynamicState {
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_VIEWPORT = 0,
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_SCISSOR = 1,
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_LINE_WIDTH = 2,
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_DEPTH_BIAS = 3,
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_BLEND_CONSTANTS = 4,
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_DEPTH_BOUNDS = 5,
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_STENCIL_COMPARE_MASK = 6,
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_STENCIL_WRITE_MASK = 7,
    VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_STENCIL_REFERENCE = 8,
} VkDynamicState;

VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_VIEWPORT specifies that the pViewports state in VkPipelineViewportStateCreateInfo will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetViewport before any draw commands. The number of viewports used by a pipeline is still specified by the viewportCount member of VkPipelineViewportStateCreateInfo.
VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_SCISSOR specifies that the pScissors state in VkPipelineViewportStateCreateInfo will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetScissor before any draw commands. The number of scissor rectangles used by a pipeline is still specified by the scissorCount member of VkPipelineViewportStateCreateInfo.
VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_LINE_WIDTH specifies that the lineWidth state in VkPipelineRasterizationStateCreateInfo will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetLineWidth before any draw commands that generate line primitives for the rasterizer.
VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_DEPTH_BIAS specifies that the depthBiasConstantFactor, depthBiasClamp and depthBiasSlopeFactor states in VkPipelineRasterizationStateCreateInfo will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetDepthBias before any draws are performed with depthBiasEnable in VkPipelineRasterizationStateCreateInfo set to VK_TRUE.
VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_BLEND_CONSTANTS specifies that the blendConstants state in VkPipelineColorBlendStateCreateInfo will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetBlendConstants before any draws are performed with a pipeline state with VkPipelineColorBlendAttachmentState member blendEnable set to VK_TRUE and any of the blend functions using a constant blend color.
VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_DEPTH_BOUNDS specifies that the minDepthBounds and maxDepthBounds states of VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetDepthBounds before any draws are performed with a pipeline state with VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo member depthBoundsTestEnable set to VK_TRUE.
VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_STENCIL_COMPARE_MASK specifies that the compareMask state in VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo for both front and back will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetStencilCompareMask before any draws are performed with a pipeline state with VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo member stencilTestEnable set to VK_TRUE
VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_STENCIL_WRITE_MASK specifies that the writeMask state in VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo for both front and back will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetStencilWriteMask before any draws are performed with a pipeline state with VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo member stencilTestEnable set to VK_TRUE
VK_DYNAMIC_STATE_STENCIL_REFERENCE specifies that the reference state in VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo for both front and back will be ignored and must be set dynamically with vkCmdSetStencilReference before any draws are performed with a pipeline state with VkPipelineDepthStencilStateCreateInfo member stencilTestEnable set to VK_TRUE

9.2.1. Valid Combinations of Stages for Graphics Pipelines

If tessellation shader stages are omitted, the tessellation shading and fixed-function stages of the pipeline are skipped.

If a geometry shader is omitted, the geometry shading stage is skipped.

If a fragment shader is omitted, the results of fragment processing are undefined. Specifically, any fragment color outputs are considered to have undefined values, and the fragment depth is considered to be unmodified. This can be useful for depth-only rendering.

Presence of a shader stage in a pipeline is indicated by including a valid VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo with module and pName selecting an entry point from a shader module, where that entry point is valid for the stage specified by stage.

Presence of some of the fixed-function stages in the pipeline is implicitly derived from enabled shaders and provided state. For example, the fixed-function tessellator is always present when the pipeline has valid Tessellation Control and Tessellation Evaluation shaders.

For example:

Depth/stencil-only rendering in a subpass with no color attachments
- Active Pipeline Shader Stages
  - Vertex Shader
- Required: Fixed-Function Pipeline Stages
Color-only rendering in a subpass with no depth/stencil attachment
- Active Pipeline Shader Stages
  - Vertex Shader
  - Fragment Shader
- Required: Fixed-Function Pipeline Stages
Rendering pipeline with tessellation and geometry shaders
- Active Pipeline Shader Stages
  - Vertex Shader
  - Tessellation Control Shader
  - Tessellation Evaluation Shader
  - Geometry Shader
  - Fragment Shader
- Required: Fixed-Function Pipeline Stages

9.3. Pipeline destruction

To destroy a graphics or compute pipeline, call:

void vkDestroyPipeline(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkPipeline                                  pipeline,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the pipeline.
pipeline is the handle of the pipeline to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

Valid Usage

All submitted commands that refer to pipeline must have completed execution
If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when pipeline was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when pipeline was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If pipeline is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, pipeline must be a valid VkPipeline handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If pipeline is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to pipeline must be externally synchronized

9.4. Multiple Pipeline Creation

Multiple pipelines can be created simultaneously by passing an array of VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo or VkComputePipelineCreateInfo structures into the vkCreateGraphicsPipelines and vkCreateComputePipelines commands, respectively. Applications can group together similar pipelines to be created in a single call, and implementations are encouraged to look for reuse opportunities within a group-create.

When an application attempts to create many pipelines in a single command, it is possible that some subset may fail creation. In that case, the corresponding entries in the pPipelines output array will be filled with VK_NULL_HANDLE values. If any pipeline fails creation (for example, due to out of memory errors), the vkCreate*Pipelines commands will return an error code. The implementation will attempt to create all pipelines, and only return VK_NULL_HANDLE values for those that actually failed.

9.5. Pipeline Derivatives

A pipeline derivative is a child pipeline created from a parent pipeline, where the child and parent are expected to have much commonality. The goal of derivative pipelines is that they be cheaper to create using the parent as a starting point, and that it be more efficient (on either host or device) to switch/bind between children of the same parent.

A derivative pipeline is created by setting the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_DERIVATIVE_BIT flag in the Vk*PipelineCreateInfo structure. If this is set, then exactly one of basePipelineHandle or basePipelineIndex members of the structure must have a valid handle/index, and specifies the parent pipeline. If basePipelineHandle is used, the parent pipeline must have already been created. If basePipelineIndex is used, then the parent is being created in the same command. VK_NULL_HANDLE acts as the invalid handle for basePipelineHandle, and -1 is the invalid index for basePipelineIndex. If basePipelineIndex is used, the base pipeline must appear earlier in the array. The base pipeline must have been created with the VK_PIPELINE_CREATE_ALLOW_DERIVATIVES_BIT flag set.

9.6. Pipeline Cache

Pipeline cache objects allow the result of pipeline construction to be reused between pipelines and between runs of an application. Reuse between pipelines is achieved by passing the same pipeline cache object when creating multiple related pipelines. Reuse across runs of an application is achieved by retrieving pipeline cache contents in one run of an application, saving the contents, and using them to preinitialize a pipeline cache on a subsequent run. The contents of the pipeline cache objects are managed by the implementation. Applications can manage the host memory consumed by a pipeline cache object and control the amount of data retrieved from a pipeline cache object.

Pipeline cache objects are represented by VkPipelineCache handles:

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkPipelineCache)

To create pipeline cache objects, call:

VkResult vkCreatePipelineCache(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo*            pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkPipelineCache*                            pPipelineCache);

device is the logical device that creates the pipeline cache object.
pCreateInfo is a pointer to a VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo structure that contains the initial parameters for the pipeline cache object.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.
pPipelineCache is a pointer to a VkPipelineCache handle in which the resulting pipeline cache object is returned.

Note

Applications can track and manage the total host memory size of a pipeline cache object using the pAllocator. Applications can limit the amount of data retrieved from a pipeline cache object in vkGetPipelineCacheData. Implementations should not internally limit the total number of entries added to a pipeline cache object or the total host memory consumed.

Once created, a pipeline cache can be passed to the vkCreateGraphicsPipelines and vkCreateComputePipelines commands. If the pipeline cache passed into these commands is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, the implementation will query it for possible reuse opportunities and update it with new content. The use of the pipeline cache object in these commands is internally synchronized, and the same pipeline cache object can be used in multiple threads simultaneously.

Note

Implementations should make every effort to limit any critical sections to the actual accesses to the cache, which is expected to be significantly shorter than the duration of the vkCreateGraphicsPipelines and vkCreateComputePipelines commands.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo structure
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
pPipelineCache must be a valid pointer to a VkPipelineCache handle

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

The VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo {
    VkStructureType               sType;
    const void*                   pNext;
    VkPipelineCacheCreateFlags    flags;
    size_t                        initialDataSize;
    const void*                   pInitialData;
} VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo;

sType is the type of this structure.
pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags is reserved for future use.
initialDataSize is the number of bytes in pInitialData. If initialDataSize is zero, the pipeline cache will initially be empty.
pInitialData is a pointer to previously retrieved pipeline cache data. If the pipeline cache data is incompatible (as defined below) with the device, the pipeline cache will be initially empty. If initialDataSize is zero, pInitialData is ignored.

Valid Usage

If initialDataSize is not 0, it must be equal to the size of pInitialData, as returned by vkGetPipelineCacheData when pInitialData was originally retrieved
If initialDataSize is not 0, pInitialData must have been retrieved from a previous call to vkGetPipelineCacheData

Valid Usage (Implicit)

sType must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PIPELINE_CACHE_CREATE_INFO
pNext must be NULL
flags must be 0
If initialDataSize is not 0, pInitialData must be a valid pointer to an array of initialDataSize bytes

typedef VkFlags VkPipelineCacheCreateFlags;

VkPipelineCacheCreateFlags is a bitmask type for setting a mask, but is currently reserved for future use.

Pipeline cache objects can be merged using the command:

VkResult vkMergePipelineCaches(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkPipelineCache                             dstCache,
    uint32_t                                    srcCacheCount,
    const VkPipelineCache*                      pSrcCaches);

device is the logical device that owns the pipeline cache objects.
dstCache is the handle of the pipeline cache to merge results into.
srcCacheCount is the length of the pSrcCaches array.
pSrcCaches is an array of pipeline cache handles, which will be merged into dstCache. The previous contents of dstCache are included after the merge.

Note

The details of the merge operation are implementation dependent, but implementations should merge the contents of the specified pipelines and prune duplicate entries.

Valid Usage

dstCache must not appear in the list of source caches

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
dstCache must be a valid VkPipelineCache handle
pSrcCaches must be a valid pointer to an array of srcCacheCount valid VkPipelineCache handles
srcCacheCount must be greater than 0
dstCache must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device
Each element of pSrcCaches must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to dstCache must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

Data can be retrieved from a pipeline cache object using the command:

VkResult vkGetPipelineCacheData(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkPipelineCache                             pipelineCache,
    size_t*                                     pDataSize,
    void*                                       pData);

device is the logical device that owns the pipeline cache.
pipelineCache is the pipeline cache to retrieve data from.
pDataSize is a pointer to a value related to the amount of data in the pipeline cache, as described below.
pData is either NULL or a pointer to a buffer.

If pData is NULL, then the maximum size of the data that can be retrieved from the pipeline cache, in bytes, is returned in pDataSize. Otherwise, pDataSize must point to a variable set by the user to the size of the buffer, in bytes, pointed to by pData, and on return the variable is overwritten with the amount of data actually written to pData.

If pDataSize is less than the maximum size that can be retrieved by the pipeline cache, at most pDataSize bytes will be written to pData, and vkGetPipelineCacheData will return VK_INCOMPLETE. Any data written to pData is valid and can be provided as the pInitialData member of the VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo structure passed to vkCreatePipelineCache.

Two calls to vkGetPipelineCacheData with the same parameters must retrieve the same data unless a command that modifies the contents of the cache is called between them.

Applications can store the data retrieved from the pipeline cache, and use these data, possibly in a future run of the application, to populate new pipeline cache objects. The results of pipeline compiles, however, may depend on the vendor ID, device ID, driver version, and other details of the device. To enable applications to detect when previously retrieved data is incompatible with the device, the initial bytes written to pData must be a header consisting of the following members:

Table 7. Layout for pipeline cache header version `VK_PIPELINE_CACHE_HEADER_VERSION_ONE`
Offset	Size	Meaning
0	4	length in bytes of the entire pipeline cache header written as a stream of bytes, with the least significant byte first
4	4	a VkPipelineCacheHeaderVersion value written as a stream of bytes, with the least significant byte first
8	4	a vendor ID equal to `VkPhysicalDeviceProperties`::`vendorID` written as a stream of bytes, with the least significant byte first
12	4	a device ID equal to `VkPhysicalDeviceProperties`::`deviceID` written as a stream of bytes, with the least significant byte first
16	`VK_UUID_SIZE`	a pipeline cache ID equal to `VkPhysicalDeviceProperties`::`pipelineCacheUUID`

The first four bytes encode the length of the entire pipeline cache header, in bytes. This value includes all fields in the header including the pipeline cache version field and the size of the length field.

The next four bytes encode the pipeline cache version, as described for VkPipelineCacheHeaderVersion. A consumer of the pipeline cache should use the cache version to interpret the remainder of the cache header.

If pDataSize is less than what is necessary to store this header, nothing will be written to pData and zero will be written to pDataSize.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
pipelineCache must be a valid VkPipelineCache handle
pDataSize must be a valid pointer to a size_t value
If the value referenced by pDataSize is not 0, and pData is not NULL, pData must be a valid pointer to an array of pDataSize bytes
pipelineCache must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Return Codes

VK_SUCCESS
VK_INCOMPLETE

VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY
VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

Possible values of the second group of four bytes in the header returned by vkGetPipelineCacheData, encoding the pipeline cache version, are:

typedef enum VkPipelineCacheHeaderVersion {
    VK_PIPELINE_CACHE_HEADER_VERSION_ONE = 1,
} VkPipelineCacheHeaderVersion;

VK_PIPELINE_CACHE_HEADER_VERSION_ONE specifies version one of the pipeline cache.

To destroy a pipeline cache, call:

void vkDestroyPipelineCache(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    VkPipelineCache                             pipelineCache,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator);

device is the logical device that destroys the pipeline cache object.
pipelineCache is the handle of the pipeline cache to destroy.
pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

Valid Usage

If VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when pipelineCache was created, a compatible set of callbacks must be provided here
If no VkAllocationCallbacks were provided when pipelineCache was created, pAllocator must be NULL

Valid Usage (Implicit)

device must be a valid VkDevice handle
If pipelineCache is not VK_NULL_HANDLE, pipelineCache must be a valid VkPipelineCache handle
If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure
If pipelineCache is a valid handle, it must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from device

Host Synchronization

Host access to pipelineCache must be externally synchronized

9.7. Specialization Constants

Specialization constants are a mechanism whereby constants in a SPIR-V module can have their constant value specified at the time the VkPipeline is created. This allows a SPIR-V module to have constants that can be modified while executing an application that uses the Vulkan API.

Note

Specialization constants are useful to allow a compute shader to have its local workgroup size changed at runtime by the user, for example.

Each instance of the VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo structure contains a parameter pSpecializationInfo, which can be NULL to indicate no specialization constants, or point to a VkSpecializationInfo structure.

The VkSpecializationInfo structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkSpecializationInfo {
    uint32_t                           mapEntryCount;
    const VkSpecializationMapEntry*    pMapEntries;
    size_t                             dataSize;
    const void*                        pData;
} VkSpecializationInfo;

mapEntryCount is the number of entries in the pMapEntries array.
pMapEntries is a pointer to an array of VkSpecializationMapEntry which maps constant IDs to offsets in pData.
dataSize is the byte size of the pData buffer.
pData contains the actual constant values to specialize with.

pMapEntries points to a structure of type VkSpecializationMapEntry.

Valid Usage

The offset member of each element of pMapEntries must be less than dataSize
The size member of each element of pMapEntries must be less than or equal to dataSize minus offset
If mapEntryCount is not 0, pMapEntries must be a valid pointer to an array of mapEntryCount valid VkSpecializationMapEntry structures

Valid Usage (Implicit)

If dataSize is not 0, pData must be a valid pointer to an array of dataSize bytes

The VkSpecializationMapEntry structure is defined as:

typedef struct VkSpecializationMapEntry {
    uint32_t    constantID;
    uint32_t    offset;
    size_t      size;
} VkSpecializationMapEntry;

constantID is the ID of the specialization constant in SPIR-V.
offset is the byte offset of the specialization constant value within the supplied data buffer.
size is the byte size of the specialization constant value within the supplied data buffer.

If a constantID value is not a specialization constant ID used in the shader, that map entry does not affect the behavior of the pipeline.

Valid Usage

For a constantID specialization constant declared in a shader, size must match the byte size of the constantID. If the specialization constant is of type boolean, size must be the byte size of VkBool32

In human readable SPIR-V:

OpDecorate %x SpecId 13 ; decorate .x component of WorkgroupSize with ID 13
OpDecorate %y SpecId 42 ; decorate .y component of WorkgroupSize with ID 42
OpDecorate %z SpecId 3  ; decorate .z component of WorkgroupSize with ID 3
OpDecorate %wgsize BuiltIn WorkgroupSize ; decorate WorkgroupSize onto constant
%i32 = OpTypeInt 32 0 ; declare an unsigned 32-bit type
%uvec3 = OpTypeVector %i32 3 ; declare a 3 element vector type of unsigned 32-bit
%x = OpSpecConstant %i32 1 ; declare the .x component of WorkgroupSize
%y = OpSpecConstant %i32 1 ; declare the .y component of WorkgroupSize
%z = OpSpecConstant %i32 1 ; declare the .z component of WorkgroupSize
%wgsize = OpSpecConstantComposite %uvec3 %x %y %z ; declare WorkgroupSize

From the above we have three specialization constants, one for each of the x, y & z elements of the WorkgroupSize vector.

Now to specialize the above via the specialization constants mechanism:

const VkSpecializationMapEntry entries[] =
{
    {
        13,                             // constantID
        0 * sizeof(uint32_t),           // offset
        sizeof(uint32_t)                // size
    },
    {
        42,                             // constantID
        1 * sizeof(uint32_t),           // offset
        sizeof(uint32_t)                // size
    },
    {
        3,                              // constantID
        2 * sizeof(uint32_t),           // offset
        sizeof(uint32_t)                // size
    }
};

const uint32_t data[] = { 16, 8, 4 }; // our workgroup size is 16x8x4

const VkSpecializationInfo info =
{
    3,                                  // mapEntryCount
    entries,                            // pMapEntries
    3 * sizeof(uint32_t),               // dataSize
    data,                               // pData
};

Then when calling vkCreateComputePipelines, and passing the VkSpecializationInfo we defined as the pSpecializationInfo parameter of VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo, we will create a compute pipeline with the runtime specified local workgroup size.

Another example would be that an application has a SPIR-V module that has some platform-dependent constants they wish to use.

In human readable SPIR-V:

OpDecorate %1 SpecId 0  ; decorate our signed 32-bit integer constant
OpDecorate %2 SpecId 12 ; decorate our 32-bit floating-point constant
%i32 = OpTypeInt 32 1   ; declare a signed 32-bit type
%float = OpTypeFloat 32 ; declare a 32-bit floating-point type
%1 = OpSpecConstant %i32 -1 ; some signed 32-bit integer constant
%2 = OpSpecConstant %float 0.5 ; some 32-bit floating-point constant

From the above we have two specialization constants, one is a signed 32-bit integer and the second is a 32-bit floating-point.

Now to specialize the above via the specialization constants mechanism:

struct SpecializationData {
    int32_t data0;
    float data1;
};

const VkSpecializationMapEntry entries[] =
{
    {
        0,                                    // constantID
        offsetof(SpecializationData, data0),  // offset
        sizeof(SpecializationData::data0)     // size
    },
    {
        12,                                   // constantID
        offsetof(SpecializationData, data1),  // offset
        sizeof(SpecializationData::data1)     // size
    }
};

SpecializationData data;
data.data0 = -42;    // set the data for the 32-bit integer
data.data1 = 42.0f;  // set the data for the 32-bit floating-point

const VkSpecializationInfo info =
{
    2,                                  // mapEntryCount
    entries,                            // pMapEntries
    sizeof(data),                       // dataSize
    &data,                              // pData
};

It is legal for a SPIR-V module with specializations to be compiled into a pipeline where no specialization info was provided. SPIR-V specialization constants contain default values such that if a specialization is not provided, the default value will be used. In the examples above, it would be valid for an application to only specialize some of the specialization constants within the SPIR-V module, and let the other constants use their default values encoded within the OpSpecConstant declarations.

9.8. Pipeline Binding

Once a pipeline has been created, it can be bound to the command buffer using the command:

void vkCmdBindPipeline(
    VkCommandBuffer                             commandBuffer,
    VkPipelineBindPoint                         pipelineBindPoint,
    VkPipeline                                  pipeline);

commandBuffer is the command buffer that the pipeline will be bound to.
pipelineBindPoint is a VkPipelineBindPoint value specifying whether to bind to the compute or graphics bind point. Binding one does not disturb the other.
pipeline is the pipeline to be bound.

Once bound, a pipeline binding affects subsequent graphics or compute commands in the command buffer until a different pipeline is bound to the bind point. The pipeline bound to VK_PIPELINE_BIND_POINT_COMPUTE controls the behavior of vkCmdDispatch and vkCmdDispatchIndirect. The pipeline bound to VK_PIPELINE_BIND_POINT_GRAPHICS controls the behavior of all drawing commands. No other commands are affected by the pipeline state.

Valid Usage

If pipelineBindPoint is VK_PIPELINE_BIND_POINT_COMPUTE, the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support compute operations
If pipelineBindPoint is VK_PIPELINE_BIND_POINT_GRAPHICS, the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support graphics operations
If pipelineBindPoint is VK_PIPELINE_BIND_POINT_COMPUTE, pipeline must be a compute pipeline
If pipelineBindPoint is VK_PIPELINE_BIND_POINT_GRAPHICS, pipeline must be a graphics pipeline
If the variable multisample rate feature is not supported, pipeline is a graphics pipeline, the current subpass has no attachments, and this is not the first call to this function with a graphics pipeline after transitioning to the current subpass, then the sample count specified by this pipeline must match that set in the previous pipeline

Valid Usage (Implicit)

commandBuffer must be a valid VkCommandBuffer handle
pipelineBindPoint must be a valid VkPipelineBindPoint value
pipeline must be a valid VkPipeline handle
commandBuffer must be in the recording state
The VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must support graphics, or compute operations
Both of commandBuffer, and pipeline must have been created, allocated, or retrieved from the same VkDevice

Host Synchronization

Host access to commandBuffer must be externally synchronized
Host access to the VkCommandPool that commandBuffer was allocated from must be externally synchronized

Command Properties